
WO O D S . 
























































































/ 














































GUIDE 

TO 

TRUE RELIGION. 


BY 


/ 

Rev. P. WOODS. 


BALTIMORE: 

JOHN MURPHY & CO., 
1898. 


ofcstat: 


3-r\a7 

N^T 


H. AYRINHAC, 

Censor deputatus. 


imprimatur : 

JAS. CARD. GIBBONS. 


16870 


Copyright, 1898, by Rev. P. Wooes. 





1 89 


VJ. 


.TWO COPIES RcCEIVfn 

W'fT 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Introduction, 1 

The Mosaic Law, 4 

Chapter I. — Religious State of the Peoples of the Earth 

at the Time of Christ’s Birth, . . 8 

II. — The Birth of Christ, His Teaching and 

Establishment of His Church, . . 14 

III. — Dissemination of Christian Doctrine, . 30 

IV. — Reception of Christianity by the Nations 

of the Earth, 40 

V. — Triumph of Christianity over Paganism, 53 

VI. — Heresy, 65 

VII. — Government Consolidation of the Church, 79 

VIII. — The Church fulfilling her Mission, . . 94 

IX. — Greek Schism, 107 

X. — Mohammedanism, 120 

XI. — The Church a Pacificator, . . .138 

XII. — The Church an Educator, . . . .148 

XIII. — Religious Agitation. — Things leading to 

the Great Secession of the Sixteenth 
Century, 160 

XIV. — Martin Luther, 171 

XV. — Luther. — Continued, 187 

XVI. — Calvinism, or Presbyterianism, . . . 206 

XVII. — The Anglican Church. — Episcopalianism, 222 

XVIII. — The True Christian Church, . . . 240 

XIX. — Observations, 256 

XX. — Enlargement of Christ’s Fold, . . .273 

XXI. — Return to the Fold, 287 


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PREFACE. 


The lamentable acceptance of different beliefs by 
the many denominations professing Christianity has 
prompted the writing of this little book. The author 
has endeavored to show that as Christ is truth He 
cannot be the author of two or more faiths differing 
from each other. Whilst it is hoped it will be of 
interest to all, it is intended especially for those who, 
sincere in the desire to serve God and solicitous about 
their eternal salvation, may reasonably be in doubt, 
viewing the many creeds existing, as to which they 
should profess that they may find peace for their souls 
and the assurance of eternal happiness. 

The author did not deem it essential to his purpose 
in the chapter on the Greek Church to treat separately 
of the distinct bodies of non-Catholic Christians observ- 
ing the Greek rite, but for brevity’s sake includes them 
all under the denomination of the Greek Church. 

Rich woods, Mo., 

February, 1898 . 


5 

















































INTRODUCTION. 


THE most momentous of all subjects to man is 
-*■ that concerning his eternal salvation. No 
other, however great, has an equal claim to the 
occupation of his mind. Man being a dependent 
being, the practice of religion under an acceptable 
form, or the true worship of God, is the means by 
which he can acquire eternal happiness. The form, 
however, of this worship has not been the same in 
all ages of the world. In the primitive ages and 
even to the event of the reception of the Old Law 
by the Israelites in the desert, no prescribed form 
of worship seems to have existed. Yet that men 
acquitted themselves of this duty we have abundant 
evidence in the Sacred Scriptures; for Cain and 
Abel, children of the father of the human race, 
offered sacrifice to the Almighty. The presump- 
tion is, that they performed this species of worship 
in obedience to a verbal communication from the 
Supreme Being or intuitively. But where the 
worship of sacrifice prevailed, it is reasonable to 
believe that prayer was not wanting, but that it 
ascended as an internal with the external offering. 

1 


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GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The main part, therefore, of the worship of God, if 
not the whole, may be regarded as comprised in 
these two acts, prayer and sacrifice, with the hope 
of a Redeemer. 

This acceptable worship was practised in the 
circle of the series of patriarchal families up to the 
time of Moses. But these were a small portion of 
the human race. The greater portion, descendants 
also of the patriarchal stock, sought new homes in 
distant lands from that of their birth. They also 
possessed some knowledge of the manner in which 
to worship the true God and the traditionary faith. 
But having removed from the guidance and salutary 
restraint of God-fearing superiors, they soon fell 
into error, and instead of one true God they ad- 
mitted a plurality of gods as fitting objects of their 
worship. Some there were who in the general 
corruption preserved obscure ideas of the Supreme 
Being and, following the dictates of reason, led good 
moral lives. In the absence of a written law 
regarding faith and divine worship, it may be pre- 
sumed that such will not be excluded from the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Where there is no prescribed law the liberty of 
the subject is less restricted than where law defines 
his obligations and exacts their fulfilment. Hence 
those living in the ages preceding the promulgation 
of the Old Law, enjoyed a much greater latitude 
for their religious ideas and opinions and, if we 
except the Jewish people, this freedom continued 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


3 


in the other nations till the promulgation of the 
New Law. Therefore, in judging them they should 
not be subjected to the same rigorous code as those 
living under the Mosaic Law or that given by 
Christ. 

In the Divine plan for man’s regeneration a 
people was selected by the Supreme Being from 
whom the Saviour should arise. The fidelity of 
Abraham and his correspondence with divine grace 
gained for him, besides many blessings, the great 
honor and distinction of being the father of this 
people from whom the Redeemer should come. 


THE MOSAIC LAW. 


rpHE Israelites experienced many proofs of the 
providence and protection over them of the 
Supreme Being. Their miraculous deliverance from 
the Egyptian bondage; the pillar of fire and the 
cloud sent to direct their course in the wilderness ; 
the supernatural way in which food for their sub- 
sistence in the tedious journey to the promised 
land was supplied to them, manifest the divine care 
and protection for the descendants of Abraham. 
Their repinings and yearnings for the fleshpots of 
their bondage, ill repaid such beneficence and heav- 
enly favors. They were a gross, earthly-minded 
people, so that one might naturally ask what ex- 
cellence of character rendered them objects of special 
care to the Divinity in preference to other nations. 
From their long sojourn in Egypt and their associat- 
ing with the natives, they became so contaminated 
in their religious principles, and their conception of 
the true God became so obscure and erroneous, that 
in the glorious event of the reception of the Old 
Law by Moses on Mount Sinai in the awful splendor 
of flashing lightning and peals of thunder, at the 
4 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


5 


very time in which they received a manifestation of 
Divine favor, they fell into idolatry. 

The promulgation of the Old or Mosaic Law 
marks the first great epoch in the religious history 
of mankind. From the creation to the reception of 
the Law on Mount Sinai, a latitude necessarily 
existed in the sphere of man’s conception of the 
Divinity, in the nature and extent of his belief. 

One great principle distinguished the belief of 
the patriarchs and their descendants forming a 
people or race in the patriarchal line from the creeds 
of the other nations of the earth, the belief in one 
Supreme Being to whom all creatures are subject 
and from whom all blessings flow. Hence the 
perpetuated practice of sacrifice among this people 
as an acknowledgment of His universal supremacy; 
of their entire dependance on Him ; to propitiate 
Him also and to implore His blessing. If we add 
to this actual part of worship the belief in a future 
Redeemer, we have the essentials of the religion of 
the pre-Mosaic true believer. 

The Jews, with all their faults and refractory pro- 
pensities, manifested the greatest reverence, mingled 
with holy awe, towards all pertaining to their re- 
ligion. The terrible, miraculous punishment of 
Abiron, Dathan and Core, must have impressed 
them with a salutary fear of assuming to themselves 
the exercise of religious duties to which they had 
not been divinely called. It also exalted the state 
of priesthood in their estimation, and distinguished 


6 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the priests from the multitude as the only ministers 
acceptable to God for performing the ceremonial 
duties of religion. 

The Jews, as a nation, do not appear to have 
excelled other peoples in morality, intellectual pos- 
sessions or general accomplishments, but the patri- 
archs or their most distinguished ancestors proved 
themselves faithful observers of the traditions of 
their fathers living from the time of Adam to the 
issuing of the Mosaic Law. On account of the 
fidelity of their God-fearing men and because of 
God’s promises to some of them, the Jews became 
the most divinely favored nation of the earth. How 
they appreciated this honor the books of the Old 
Testament testify. 

In the Divine ordination it appeared just that the 
Saviour of men should have an honorable pedigree, 
and that prophecy should indicate events as signs 
given in connection with the universally expected 
birth of man’s Redeemer. Hence the genealogy 
of our Saviour begins with Abraham, a most honor- 
able personage, not only by his excelling moral 
qualities and faithful worship of the true God, but 
also by his singular position as a man of great 
wealth and no despicable foe when determined to act 
in a just cause. The sacred lineage runs through the 
series of patriarchs, till it includes in its course the 
illustrious King David and continues to the last of 
his descendants on the Jewish throne. Prophecy 
of the signs and events preceding and relating to 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


7 


the birth of the Saviour of men being fulfilled, He 
was born at the time indicated by the prophecy of 
Daniel in the city of Bethlehem near Jerusalem. 

The Jews, especially the teachers and expounders 
of the Old Law, must have known accurately the 
time predicted for the birth of the Redeemer. They 
made the understanding of the Law their study ; so 
that the signs of the times received careful atten- 
tion, and no event in fulfilment or confirmatory 
of prophecy passed unnoticed. In verification of 
which, many of the Jews about the time of Christ’s 
birth were looking for His coming and cherished 
the hope that they would be favored with seeing 
their Saviour before their eyes closed in death : 
notably the prophetess Anna and holy Simeon, who 
besought the Lord to dismiss His servant when lie 
had beheld and received in his arms the infant 
Jesus in the Temple. 

The expiration of the time to elapse according to 
the prophecy of Daniel before the Redeemer’s com- 
ing and the transference of the sceptre from the 
royal line of David to a foreigner, as predicted, 
must have raised expectancy of the long-foretold, 
long-desired event not only among the doctors of 
the Law, but also throughout the entire Jewish 
nation. These were the immediate signs and indica- 
tions according to prophecy announcing the birth of 
Christ, which took place in the stable at Bethlehem. 


CHRISTIANITY. 


CHAPTER I. 

Religious State of the Peoples of the 
Earth at the Time of 
Christ’s Birth. 

/1REAT changes had taken place in the lives 
^ of individuals and communities since the time 
that Adam, sorrowfully relinquishing his happy 
abode of innocence, settled outside of Eden and 
there, first of the human race, discharged the duties 
of the head of the family. These changes appeared 
in their religious observances as in other things. 
As Adam was endowed with intuitive knowledge 
of a high degree, there can be no doubt that he 
knew it to be his duty to worship in an appropriate 
manner his bountiful Creator, even in his altered, 
less favorable relation, as a sinner, to the author of 
his being. Though the forms and sum of his relig- 
ions performances cannot be incontrovertibly stated, 
yet from his great intuitive knowledge it may be 
reasonably assumed that he practised prayer and the 
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GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


9 


offering of sacrifice. That he practised the latter 
act of worship may be inferred from the fact that 
his sons, Cain and Abel, offered sacrifice to the 
Almighty. 

As the descendants of Adam increased in num- 
bers, it became necessary to extend by degrees from 
the ancestral or paternal grounds to distant lands 
where rich and abundant pasture offered them in- 
viting fields for new abodes. As distance increased 
between them and the paternal roof, so also the 
ideal purity of worship receded from their minds. 
This deterioration may be easily accounted for. For 
their guidance in the matter of religious worship 
they depended entirely on tradition. But tradition, 
unless aided by something less mutable, such as a 
written law, is liable to such changes as to lead to 
mystification from the innate tendency some people 
have to alter by amplification or diminution what- 
ever they have heard. Thus the Adamite tradition 
in the lapse of time may have been lost to his more 
distant and morally lax descendants through the 
process of metamorphosing original tradition. In 
the ante-diluvian period, therefore, the knowledge 
of the true God became almost universally obscure 
and His worship ceased, except with a few members 
of the human race. As a result man became de- 
praved and debased ; for all flesh had corrupted its 
way, as sacred scripture informs us, to such an 
extent that God, to put an end to multiplying 
iniquity, caused the waters of the Deluge to destroy 


10 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the human race, with the exception of the eight 
persons preserved in Noah’s Ark. 

In the post-diluvian period the true worship was 
practised by Noah and his immediate descendants, 
at least for some time, but soon the evil tendency 
of human nature manifested itself, and the seeds of 
sin progressively yielded their abundant harvest of 
crimes and abominations. Even under the patri- 
archal eye all his descendants were not free from its 
stain, he having uttered a curse in reproof and punish- 
ment of it upon the offspring of one of his sons. 

Salutary fear of God did not long restrain the 
wicked propensities of man, even with the remem- 
brance of the awful punishment of sin by the 
universal deluge fresh in their minds. 

In spreading from Noah’s home the members of 
the human race also departed in the course of time 
from the true worship of God, as a sequence to at 
first the impairing of the knowledge of God by 
the admission of gross ideas relative to the Deity. 
By the commission of some sins the mind becomes 
darkened, so that the mental view being obscured it 
is unable to retain the perception of what pertains 
to man’s higher or spiritual sphere. He descended 
to a form of belief embodying the materially sensible 
as he fell into depravity, and attaching himself 
inordinately to the material world in which he lived, 
devoted himself to unreasonable, unrestrained grati- 
fication of the senses. When communities were 
formed and towns and cities built, the degree of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


11 


moral corruption and the nature of false belief 
differed considerably. Some fell so low in human 
debasement, apparently knowing no limit to their 
wickedness, such as Sodom and Gomorrha, that they 
were intolerable to the sight of God, drawing upon 
themselves extermination by fire. 

In all communities and nations there existed some 
form of religious worship, ascending from the adora- 
tion of inferior animals of the earth to the worship 
of the planets that move in the universe ; for it is 
natural to man, knowing his own dependence, to 
acknowledge a supreme being, true or false, to 
whom he attributes a connection with his happiness 
or misery. The most horrible and revolting of 
religious worship was that in which human victims 
were immolated to the false deity. Among the more 
enlightened nations flourishing near the Christian 
era, viz., the Greek and the Roman, a more intel- 
lectual religion found acceptance. These, with 
Jupiter and Zeus at the head of the array of their 
respective gods, approached nearer than others to 
the belief in the true and only God. 

The Jews alone of all the nations of the earth 
possessed a knowledge and practised the worship of 
the true God ; yet, it may be said that even they 
had but a very imperfect conception of His nature 
and attributes. The Jews, however, had preserved 
more carefully, adhered more reverently to the tra- 
ditions of their patriarchal ancestors in pre-Mosaic 
times. This traditional observance, however, can 


12 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


only be asserted of them in a free state and when 
few in number. In their Egyptian captivity they 
scarcely escaped contamination in their religious 
principles from their constant intercourse with their 
masters, practising a different belief of a lower, 
sensible and antagonistic nature. Of this abundant 
evidence is afforded in the narrative of their deliver- 
ance from their bondage and of their long journey 
to the Promised Land. They had palpable proof 
of the omnipotence of their God, convincing evi- 
dence as well as assurance of the Divine care and 
protection ; yet, they manifested their unworthiness 
of the heavenly favors bestowed upon them by 
their murmurs in the desert against their leaders 
appointed by God to liberate them from the oppres- 
sive yoke in the land of Egypt. Most of all, they 
showed their unspiritual tendency in sighing for the 
flesh pots of Egypt even in bondage, rather than be 
free and fed by the bountiful hand of God. 

Up to the promulgation of the Old Law given to 
them on Mount Sinai, the Jews, like other nations, 
were bound only by the natural law and tradition. 
For them the Mosaic Law introduced a new con- 
dition, a strict performance of duties moral and re- 
ligious. The sphere of responsibility was enlarged, 
but they had also the assurance of the Divine aid ; 
temporal blessings with the promise of happiness 
in eternity. 

The other nations still continued to be governed 
by the natural law innate to man and by tradition. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


13 


How far the latter influenced their lives it would be 
difficult to state with certainty. That they possessed 
some traditional heritages may be generally admitted, 
and amongst these that of the advent of a great 
benefactor to the human race, a savior, at a specified 
time. Reference to this great event may be found 
in the works of distinguished writers of different 
nations. Socrates among the Greeks, Tacitus among 
the Romans, Zoroaster among the Persians, speak 
of it in no obscure terms. The tradition cannot be 
asserted peculiar to any nation; it may be said to 
be almost common to all, some having a fuller, 
more definite knowledge than others of the advent 
of the Redeemer. 

Such was the religious state of the nations of the 
earth at the time of the birth of Christ. 


CHAPTER II. 


The Birth of Christ, His Teaching and 
Establishment of His Church. 

rnHE most important event to man after his 
expulsion from Paradise is the birth of Christ. 
When Adam heard the words of expulsion from 
Eden, together with the sentence consigning him to 
a cheerless and laborious life, he was comforted no 
doubt by the promise that the woman’s seed should 
triumph over the serpent, the devil, who had caused 
them to lose their happy abode in the garden of 
pleasure and under whose power they had to some 
extent fallen. This is the first, yet indefinite, allu- 
sion made to the great spiritual conqueror Jesus 
Christ, issuing not from the dual cause of generation 
but from the woman. He was frequently spoken 
of in subsequent prophecies, and the time of his 
advent accurately stated by the prophet Daniel. 
The universal event, so long promised and so often 
the theme of prophesy, took place in a stable at 
Bethlehem in the reign of Csesar Augustus, heir and 
successor to the great Julius, assassinated in the 
Roman Senate, when the Saviour of men was born 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

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GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


15 


No welcome, no national rejoicing greeted the 
noblest of infants, the mightiest of babes. No 
general announcement to the Jewish nation at the 
time signalized the arrival amongst them of the 
King of Kings who should reign in the house of 
Jacob forever. But a celestial host, with angelic 
melody, supplied the want of human natal celebra- 
tions, illuminating the wonderful scene and joyfully 
announcing to the shepherds of the vicinity the 
birth of the Saviour. Indeed, it may be reasonably 
doubted that the Jews, judging from their subse- 
quent treatment of Christ, would acclaim Him as 
the long-promised Messias of prophecy, especially 
when the humble circumstances of His birth are 
considered. There was nothing in the prophecies 
regarding Him to cause them to exclude from their 
notions of the Son of David, that He would lead 
them to that state of power and prosperity by 
glorious triumphs enjoyed by their ancestors under 
the Royal Prophet. The designs of Heaven were 
otherwise. Not only to the Jews did He come, but 
to all nations. The Jews did not comprehend the 
extent of the mission of Christ, and hence their 
attitude toward Him. 

The first manifestation of Our Saviour’s super- 
human intelligence occurred on the occasion of His 
visit to the Temple at the age of twelve years, when 
He astonished the doctors of the law by the extra- 
ordinary knowledge He displayed in disputing with 
them and asking them questions. This was but an 


16 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


incident in His private life, yet one sufficient to 
cause well-disposed persons to see in Him something 
more than human. 

At the age of thirty years Christ began the 
work of His mission. The principal works of His 
public career comprised teaching or preaching, prayer, 
and the performance of miracles. These wonderful 
works, His miracles, should have brought conviction 
to any unprejudiced mind of His divine nature. 
They failed, however, to make any favorable im- 
pression on the majority of the Jews, especially those 
of their priesthood whose hearts seem to have been 
perverted. His rebukes administered against their 
sinful character were a cause of humiliation and 
cut them to the core. They were the expounders 
of the law, the teachers of others, being a privileged 
class, also, they were held in high estimation by the 
people. For another, not recognized as of their own 
order, to assume the position of their teacher and 
reformer, was a thing intolerable to them. They 
retaliated by endeavoring to compass His ruin. 
They could not assail Him in His character, for the 
Son of God was beyond reproach. Their enmity 
and hatred toward Him impelled them to have 
recourse to wicked means. Under the appearance 
of seeking instruction, they asked questions with 
the object of finding something in His answers or 
teaching contrary to their law, and thus have cause 
for His arraignment. But all their wiles proved 
ineffectual. In their blind perversity they could 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


17 


see only man in the object of their hatred. The 
evidence of His Divinity brought belief in His 
mission to others ; but to the ruling class of the 
Jews, from the High Priest to the scribe, it brought 
but envy and defamation of His character, for in 
their wicked hostility to Him they attributed His 
miracles done for the benefit of humanity to an evil 
source, even to the Satan the enemy of mankind. 
Failing to ensnare Our Lord in His speech, the 
Jews resolved upon a more violent course of action 
towards Him and waited the opportunity of con- 
veniently apprehending Him, yet so as not to arouse 
the hostility of the people, for these held Him in the 
highest estimation for His faultless character, His 
pure elevating doctrine and the wonders He per- 
formed amongst them. Many of them also believed 
in Him as the true Messiah. 

Shortly after entering on His public career Christ 
began the formation of His Church.. He designed 
it to be composed of two portions : the one, the 
teaching and ruling, on whom He conferred the 
powers which He exercised Himself for the salva- 
tion of souls ; the other, the more numerous, to be 
subject to the former in what pertained to spiritual 
matters necessary unto salvation. He chose twelve 
men, called Apostles, as the nucleus of the teaching 
and ruling power. To these were added the priests 
of the same order, but of less authority, whose Divine 
appointment is acknowledged in the fact that Christ 
commissioned seventy-two of His disciples to pre- 
2 


18 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

cede Him as a means of preparation in the places 
which he was going to visit to preach to the people 
His Gospel, and to inculcate the necessary means for 
entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The divinely 
appointed element of the priesthood is also implied 
in the words of St. James the Apostle, as follows : 
“ Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in 
the priests of the Church and let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick 
man and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be 
in sins they shall be forgiven him.” Cath. Ep. y 
ch. 5, v. 14. 

These were the two immediately divinely ap- 
pointed elements of the ruling power in the Church 
of Christ. 

As Christ’s Church has been aptly denominated 
a flock, even by Himself, these two elements, the 
Apostles with the bishops their successors, and the 
priests, are appropriately termed pastors thereof. 
The Saviour of men constituted His Church a visible 
society ; as reasons demands, experience teaches and 
history proves, it requires a visible head or supreme 
ruler. As Christ was the most perfect of all organ- 
izers, it cannot be reasonably supposed that He would 
omit so essential a requisite for the government of 
the greatest, most durable, society the world has ever 
seen. To this post of honor and responsibility He 
appointed St. Peter as His first vicegerent on earth. 
But as this ever-increasing society, the Church of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


19 


Christ, should continue to exist in all subsequent 
ages after the death of St. Peter, it requires no 
argument to show that a succession of supreme 
rulers must govern it till the end of the world. 
Hence the series of supreme pontiffs, the consecutive 
successors to St. Peter in the Episcopal Apostolic 
See of Rome. The words of Christ addressed to 
St. Peter : “ I will give to thee the Keys of the 
Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven, 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth it shall 
be loosed also in heaven ” {Matt., ch. xvi, v. 18-19) 
and “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep ” {Jn., ch. xxi 
v. 15, etc.) are to be applied to each of St. Peter’s 
successors, who have been raised to the same dignity 
of chief ruler of Christ’s Church and invested with 
the same authority, for the same conditions existed 
after the death of St. Peter that did in the Apostolic 
Age for the government of the Christian Church. 

The training of the Apostles for the propagation 
of His doctrine was the work of the Divine Master. 
They were mostly illiterate men, as the narrative 
of their lives reveals, yet they were intended to 
discourse on the most profound subjects that the 
mind can think on, and before all classes of society, 
the noble and the cultured, as well as the humble 
aud untaught. For this purpose He gave them 
no written treatise, appointed no task for study, 
but He taught them orally, impressed upon their 
minds the principles of the religion they were 


20 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


soon to introduce into the nations of the earth. 
As Christ differed in this mode of establishing His 
religion from other founders, so this feature in the 
formation of the Church deserves more than passing 
notice from the student of Christianity, for the 
neglect of it may lead to grave errors, especially 
in those who hold tenaciously to their own opinion 
on scriptural matters. 

The Apostles attended Our Lord in His labors 
of preaching to the people and in healing the sick. 
They had, therefore, the best model that could be 
desired for learning how they should conduct them- 
selves in their subsequent career of preachers of 
the Gospel, and of performing the other important 
duties of their vocation. In this preparation they 
were reminded by the impressive example of their 
Master not to neglect their own salvation. He 
retired frequently after His labors and spent a 
considerable portion of time in communing with 
His heavenly Father by holy prayer. It cannot 
be doubted that this was principally for example 
to others, especially for those whom He had called, 
and those whom in future time He would call, to 
the discharge of the sacerdotal functions which He 
Himself performed. The inspired writers of the 
New Testament also inform us that He retired at 
times with His disciples. On these occasions, as 
may be understood, He withdrew them from the 
multitude to accustom them to attend to their own 
sanctification whilst laboring for the salvation of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 21 

others ; to infuse into them His own spirit ; for each 
of them should subsequently reproduce in their 
respective fields of labor His missionary career, con- 
firming their divine mission by miracles not less 
wonderful and convincing than those they beheld 
performed by their Master. Of the love and prac- 
tice of prayer He gave them His own impressive 
example, retiring apart and alone, devoting a con- 
siderable portion of time both during the day and 
night to spiritual communing with His heavenly 
Father. The mortification of the flesh He incul- 
cated more forcibly by practice than by exhortation, 
by rigorous fasting. In brief, He gave an example 
for the love and practice of the Christian virtues 
which they beheld in His own life a living model. 
Against pride and self-esteem, on account of any 
great work they might perform among the people 
to whom they were sent as preachers of the Gospel, 
He warned them when He told them not to rejoice 
because they had power over evil spirits and that 
the latter were subject to them, but rather that their 
names were written in the Book of Life. 

That the Apostles had a salutary solicitude for 
their own salvation is evident from the words 
St. Paul, who, notwithstanding the proofs of his 
acceptability to His divine Master, yet declares 
that he chastised his body and brought it into 
subjection lest having preached to others to urge 
them to the securing of their salvation, he himself 
should become a castaway. 


22 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Though the Apostles accompanied our Lord dur- 
ing the greater part of His public life, they were 
unable to comprehend the extent of His divine 
mission to men. Neither did they possess a com- 
plete idea of the magnitude of the work for which 
they were destined. It was not unreasonable for 
them to believe that their Master was invincible 
physically as well as spiritually. Hence, when He 
alluded to His passion, as the time approached for 
the redemption of fallen man, they seemed not to 
understand the full import of His words. They 
had probably a vague idea of some strange, trouble- 
producing event to happen at Jerusalem at the 
time of celebrating the Jewish passover, to which 
celebration they accompanied their Master with 
wondering expectation of what should happen. If 
the apprehension of any sinister design against 
their beloved Lord found place in their minds, it 
must have been dispelled by the joyful reception 
accorded Him by the multitude as He entered the 
Jewish Capital riding on an ass. 

The narrative of the Last Supper presents a most 
affecting, solemn scene. The labors of the great 
Master for man’s redemption were now approaching 
completion, whilst the efficacy of the religious cere- 
monies prescribed by the Old Law also saw its end. 
For in that upper chamber where Jesus sat with 
His twelve disciples, a new and perfect Paschal 
Lamb replaced forever the figurative one of the 
Jews. What solemn thoughts, thoughts of adoration, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


23 


of gratitude, of love, must have filled the minds of 
the disciples at the time of their first Holy Com- 
munion. What spiritual fruits must have enriched 
their souls, except that of the traitor Judas. No 
doubt disturbed their minds when they heard for 
the first time the words of consecration converting 
the elements of bread and wine into the substance 
of the body and blood of Christ. “This is My 
Body” and “For This is My Blood of the New 
Testament which shall be shed for many unto the 
remission of sins ” ( Matt ., ch. 26, v. 26-28). It 
was a most solemn time to give to man the greatest 
pledge of His love for him, by instituting the 
Eucharistic Sacrament, in the reception of which 
man would be united to Christ, and the Redeemer 
would make His habitation with His worthy 
recipient. The institution of this Sacrament He 
intimated when He said, teaching in the Synagogue 
at Capharnaum : “ Except you eat the flesh of the 
Son of Man and drink His Blood you shall not 
have life in you.” This gift of love fittingly marked 
the near termination of a life of love, of teaching, 
and of laboring, for the salvation of sinful man. 
There was yet one final act to complete that most 
holy of lives. His sacred career must culminate in 
a tragic scene in the torturing immolation of the 
innocent on Mount Calvary. How it must have 
loomed in the distance and depressed His Sacred 
Heart, for as He drew nigh to it its contemplation 
almost overwhelmed Him. His last prayer before 


24 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


falling into the hands of His enemies reveals His 
sorrowful, recoiling condition : “My Father, if it be 
possible, let this Chalice pass from me; nevertheless 
not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” But no, it must 
be drained to the last drop. His heavenly Father 
had so willed to satisfy divine justice for the sin of 
Adam in the Garden of Eden to the last sin of the 
truly repentant. Christ’s love for man rose above 
the fear of the terrible ordeal, and He surrendered 
Himself to His enemies for a sacrifice of expiation 
for the sins of men and a sacrifice also of impetra- 
tion, procuring the necessary graces for the objects 
of His love to arrive at the happy destination for 
which they are created. At His betrayal by Judas 
and apprehension in the Garden of Gethsemane, His 
disciples fled from Him in utter dismay; Peter alone, 
well worthy of beiug their chief, had the courage to 
follow Him to His trial. If in a gloomy moment 
he yielded to an indefinite fear and weakened in his 
fidelity so far as to deny his Master when questioned 
as to his being a follower of Christ, his defection 
may be palliated by the natural desire of self-pres- 
ervation in a hazardous position. The prediction 
of the Lord was verified that He would strike the 
shepherd, and the sheep would be dispersed and that 
Peter would deny Him. This fall was great, but 
only temporary, for a look from his Master recalled 
him to his senses and, moved with shame and sorrow 
for his denial, he went forth and wept bitterly. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 25 

The enormity as well as the hateful nature of sin 
manifests itself in the sad humiliations, the terrible 
punishments, its expiation demanded in the most 
perfect and holy of beings, even in the person of 
the God-man. The mocking and buffeting by the 
soldiers, the inhuman scourging at the pillar, the 
most painful crowning with thorns, the carrying of 
His Cross by the mangled victim, and those hours 
of agony spent nailed to the cross till He gave His 
last breath, should fill every one with a salutary fear 
of committing what in human estimation might be 
but a light sin, not knowing the magnitude of the 
retribution it may exact. 

Notwithstanding the wonderful signs at the time 
of the crucifixion, attesting the crucified to be the 
Son of God ; the Sun being darkened, the graves 
yielding up their occupants who appeared once more 
in life, and the veil of the Temple being rent from 
top to bottom, the Jews alone remained imper- 
vious to impressions, continued in their unbelief. 
They even took measures by surrounding Christ’s 
Sepulchre with a military guard to render void His 
prediction that He would rise from the tomb on 
the third day. His glorious triumphant resurrec- 
tion, however, confounded them, but . it did not 
change their perverted minds. 

It was joyful news to the disciples to hear of their 
Master’s resurrection. They began to understand 
more fully the Sacred Scriptures concerning Him 
and His great Mission, with which they felt them- 


26 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


selves in some way connected. They recalled, no 
doubt, many of His instructions, preparing them 
for their missionary labors when no longer aided 
by His presence, the great powers with which He 
had already invested them, and the promise that 
He should see them again after His resurrection 
from the dead. 

Up to the time of the Sacrifice on the Cross, Christ 
had but partially instituted His Church. For its 
completion, together with further instructing His 
disciples for the conversion of the world, He 
remained forty days on earth from the time of 
His resurrection till His ascent into Heaven. 

So unsettled were the opinions of His disciples 
by the recent events in relation to the Redeemer, 
that the doubts of one of them, Thomas, had to be 
dispelled by his own sensible proof of the resurrec- 
tion of his Master from the dead. This favor was 
granted the doubting disciple, but with an affecting 
rebuke, when Christ entered the closed room in 
which the disciples were assembled. This is the 
second appearance of the Lord to His disciples after 
His resurrection. At the first, which happened in 
a similar manner, Thomas being absent, He conferred 
upon them the wonderful power of forgiving sins. 
On that memorable occasion, having entered the 
room where they were, He said to them : “ Peace 
be with you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also 
send you.” When He had said this, He breathed 
on them and he said to them : u Receive ye the Holy 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


27 


Ghost : Whose sins you shall forgive they are for- 
given them, and whose sins you shall retain they 
are retained/’ 

The night before He died He imparted to them 
the power to convert bread and wine into His Body 
and Blood in such a manner as to show His death, 
or, in other words, to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the 
Cross. This Sacrament, viz., the Holy Eucharist, 
is the sequence of an imperative duty imposed by 
His utterance in a previous discourse, when He 
said : “ Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of 
Man and drink His Blood you shall not have life 
in you ” ( Jn ., ch. vi, v. 54). 

The Sacrament of the forgiveness of Sins, or 
Penance, is intended for the spiritual resurrection 
of man as often as he may have the misfortune 
to fall into grievous sin, and thus render him 
capable of receiving worthily the Sacrament of the 
Holy Eucharist. These two Sacraments, together 
with Baptism, are the chief indispensable means 
appointed for the eternal salvation of man. 

Christ imparted His doctrine to His disciples not 
in writing but by word of mouth. The narratives' 
in the four Gospels, or New Testament, are mere 
fragments of His acts and discourses during His 
public life. The absence of a specially written law 
in the institution of Christ’s Church, is a remark- 
able feature in the origin of Christianity. A 
fuller reference will be made to it in a subsequent 
chapter. 


28 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION 1 . 


When the minds of the disciples were enlightened 
by their Master to understand the Scriptures con- 
cerning Him ; when they remembered the many 
teachings imparted to them up to the time of His 
death ; and when He had fully instructed them 
after His resurrection, they were fully equipped, 
one requisite excepted, for the execution of the 
great commission : “ Going therefore teach ye all 
nations; baptising them in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you : and behold I am with you all days, 
even to the consummation of the world ” ( Matt., 
ch. xxy, v. 19-20). The excepted requisite was 
the communication of the Holy Ghost shortly after- 
wards received. Giving them the last blessing on 
Mount Olivet, He counselled them to wait in Jeru- 
salem until He would send them the promised gift, 
the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth who should abide 
with them forever. 

Who can describe the feelings of joy, of adoration, 
of love, the disciples experienced as they gazed at 
•the ascending form of their lately crucified Master 
but now triumphant Lord to take His place at the 
right hand of God His Father in the Kingdom of 
Heaven. With cheerful hearts, though separated 
from their great Leader, they returned to the ap- 
pointed place of waiting in the city. They spent 
the intervening days in devout prayer and holy 
aspirations, to prepare themselves for the worthy 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


29 


reception of the heavenly Comforter. When on 
the tenth day after Christ’s ascension the Holy 
Spirit descended with the sound of a mighty wind 
and sat on the heads of the disciples in the form of 
tongues of fire, they experienced a wonderful trans- 
formation as the effect of His communication. All 
fear retired from them as they went forth boldly to 
preach the New Gospel. They were endowed with 
spiritual strength. Eloquence and unction graced 
their speech, bringing with facility conviction to the 
hearers of the truth announced, whilst the power of 
performing miracles confirmed their divine mission. 
By the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, 
completion was given to the spiritual edifice for the 
salvation of souls and the Church of Christ estab- 
lished for all time. 


CHAPTER III. 


Dissemination of Christian Doctrine. 

TT should not be supposed that though none of 
His friends stood by Christ at His trial nor at 
His Crucifixion, save a few, he had not many 
followers. On the contrary, these were numbered 
by the hundreds, if not thousands. St Luke relates 
that on the occasion of His triumphant entry into 
Jerusalem, the multitude of His disciples graced 
His approach with shouts of praise and joy, acclaim- 
ing Him as the King Who cometh in the name of 
the Lord. And many more believed in Him during 
His sojourn in the city. St. Paul states that after 
His resurrection He was seen at one time by more 
than five hundred brethren (1 Cor., ch. xy, v. 6). 
Many also of the Jews believed in Christ, but from 
fear of persecution did not publicly profess that 
belief. But whatever be the number of Christ’s 
followers at the time of His Ascension into Heaven, 
it was small in comparison with the great mass of 
the Jews who held aloof, however much they 
admired His doctrine or were impressed by His 
miracles. As soon as the Apostles began their 
labors the tide of conversions set in. To St. Peter 
30 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


31 


is due the merit and distinction of reaping the first 
fruits of the spiritual harvest. By his lucid explana- 
tion of the Scriptures concerning Christ in his first 
impressive discourse, three thousand responded to the 
grace given them and joined the Church, and others 
followed so numerously that in a short time they 
attracted attention in Jerusalem. Their simplicity, 
disinterestedness and brotherly love favorably im- 
pressed those who beheld them, whilst the miracles 
performed by the Apostles completed the conviction 
that the new religion came from Heaven, had 
superseded the observance of the Mosaic Law. 
Hence the new faith soon found many believers, not 
only in Jerusalem but in the adjacent towns and 
villages. When the principles of Christianity had 
been taught and practised in and around the capital 
of the nation, the Apostles, mindful of the universal 
commission they had received, diverged on all sides, 
visiting the distant towns and cities, preaching the 
gospel of Christ and sowing the seed of His religion. 
The chief priest and the unbelieving Jews thought 
to extinguish the light of Christian faith by the 
crucifixion of its Founder. They soon discovered 
that although they had killed Him, they had not 
killed the spiritual seed that He had sown. They 
now beheld the prodigious growth of the seed in 
ever-increasing numbers of His followers, causing 
them the most galling disapointment. They became 
alarmed at the incessant defections from Judaism 
seeking admission into the Church. Many devices 


32 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

they used to suppress the teaching of the new doc- 
trine, but without success. The admirable, unoffen- 
sive lives of the Christians disconcerted all the 
schemes devised against their religion. The practice 
of the virtues to an unwonted degree was conspicu- 
ous in their daily life, whilst the community of goods 
which they enjoyed produced a favorable impression 
on those outside of the Church not actuated by 
prejudiced motives. A desire of closer inquiry was 
aroused, which in turn was followed by the gift of 
faith and then conversion. 

In the presence of so many conversions and the 
rapid growth of the Christian Church, the rulers 
of the Mosaic persuasion became alarmed to such 
an extent as to have recourse to the most violent 
measures to repress the new religion. There were 
fanatics, zealots among them who feared to commit 
no crime, not even murder, when they thought them- 
selves called upon to defend their own religion or 
repel assaults upon it. True zeal was not wanting 
in the Christian ranks, which manifested itself in 
the boldness with which some of the leaders assailed 
their persecutors in cutting reproofs for their per- 
versity and inveterate opposition and violence to 
holy men in past times sent for their correction. 
St. Stephen was the first to experience their fanatic 
vengeance, gaining thereby the glorious title of 
Christian protormartyr. Their public violence was 
somewhat restrained by the fear of their political 
masters, the Romans, whose military garrison domi- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


33 


nated the city. Although the Romans should not 
be considered as defending or countenancing the 
Christian religion, yet they felt bound in the inter- 
ests of public order, as well as to make the Jews 
feel more forcibly their condition of being in sub- 
jection to Rome and to curb their lawless tendencies. 
Nevertheless, though the Jews could not legally 
exercise the power to inflict capital punishment, 
they pursued with determined hatred those who had 
been religiously obnoxious to them. The High 
Priest and teachers of their law found ready instru- 
ments for accomplishing their evil designs in the 
young members of the observers of the Old Law. 
They emulated each other in their false zeal ; 
pursuing, arresting and bringing to trial in their 
religious courts those fearless teachers who gloried 
in punishment received for preaching the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. Not the least conspicuous of these 
persecutors of the Christians was a young man of 
Tarsus, named Saul. Of mental powers surpassing 
the average, not without a degree of eloquence ; 
readiness of speech and impetuous of action, he 
offered a most welcome instrument for executing the 
commands of the rulers of the Synagogue against 
the observers of the New Law. He consented to 
the death of St. Stephen, as the narrative of that 
murder informs us, having early imbibed the Jewish 
characteristic of bitter animosity against whomso- 
ever attacked or opposed the teachings of the Old 
Law. As Christianity spread rapidly, it soon found 
3 


34 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


adherents in the most distant parts of the country ; 
especially in the large towns and cities did its 
invincible preachers arouse the hostility of the 
members of the synagogue wherever they went, by 
the freedom with which they proclaimed the death 
of the Old Law with the death of Jesus Christ. 
The rulers at Jerusalem, aware of the commotions 
in the distant synagogues, delivered to Saul a 
commission to bring captive to their tribunals the 
innocent disturbers. He set out for Damascus, a 
place of importance as to antiquity, population, 
commerce and the number of Jews observing the 
Mosaic Law. Here the Christians had established 
themselves, and against them came Saul breathing 
vengeance against his religious opponents. His 
approach was announced in the city, causing some 
uneasiness to the Christians, for he did not come 
alone, whilst he was to increase his band from 
the zealous of the Damascenes for the Law. His 
erroneous zeal found a new and opposite course 
for exercise by his miraculous conversion as he 
approached near to the city. On this occasion, so 
graphically described in the Acts of the Apostles, 
he received the grace of a special call from Christ 
to participate in the ministry of the Church. Great 
must have been the discouragement of his followers, 
and the Jews in general, at the defection of so able 
and vehement a defender of their Law. After re- 
ceiving baptism and his new commission to preach 
the Gospel of Christ, he began his labors in the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


35 


vineyard of his Lord with the greatest ardor, 
redoubled zeal and his characteristic impetuosity. 
Very prudently he kept himself at a safe distance 
from the vicinity of Jerusalem for some time; for 
had he been found near the precincts of the Temple, 
in all probability he would have been immolated as 
a victim to the fury of his former co-religionists. 
With the exception of a few of the remote places 
from Jerusalem, the principal theatre of Paul's 
labors lay outside of Jewish territory, principally 
in Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean. 
His wonderful labors are minutely narrated in the 
Acts of the Apostles. His missionary career re- 
ceived far more attention than that given to the 
labors of any other Apostle; not that the others 
were barren of fruitful works, but owing, probably, 
to the writer of the Acts being more intimate with 
St. Paul and having a personal knowledge of what 
he relates. The meagre written account of the 
wonderful doings of the others, is amply supple- 
mented by reliable tradition, faithfully transmitted 
from age to age in the Church which lovingly 
cherishes the memory of the glorious labors of her 
Apostolic propagators. 

When the good seed of the Gospel, productive of 
eternal life to those who did not oppose its growth, 
was scattered throughout Palestine, new fields of 
labor presented themselves to the Apostles. Like 
mighty conquerors they went forth to the nations of 
the earth to bring them into the great fold, the vast 


36 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


dominion of their heavenly Master. To some were 
appointed Egypt and the surrounding countries. 
Others sought more distant lands including Arabia, 
Persia, India and neighboring States. Of the Apos- 
tolic labors in these parts tradition mostly takes the 
place of history. All of them gained the martyr’s 
crown ; even St. John, though he died a natural 
death, underwent the ordeal to merit it. Neither 
was their blood shed unfruitfully, as the numbers of 
spiritual children they left in these nations testify, 
whom persecution did not diminish, nor the pros- 
pect of a torturing death make for an instant waver 
in their firmly established faith. 

The mind follows with more interest the career of 
those Apostles to whom Europe was assigned, or 
who made it the theatre of their fruitful labors. 
Europe, though the least of the then known great 
divisions of the earth, had long before the institu- 
tion of the Church, asserted her superiority over the 
other continents. With her the Arts and Sciences 
flourished in a high degree, loved and pursued by her 
progressive inhabitants. Her warrior sons found 
no equals on the battle-fields outside of her; they 
conquered wherever they went. One of her nations 
surpassed all others in great military and political 
achievements. The Romans dominated the other 
nations both within and beyond the confines of 
Europe. Rome, their capital, reigned the mistress 
of the known world, a few barbarian countries 
excepted. It was, therefore, fitting that the most 


GUIDE TO TKUE RELIGION. 


37 


able, the most conspicuous of the preachers of the 
Gospel should make Europe the field of their labors. 
Hence, St. Paul, whose aggressive activity against all 
false systems of religion, whose transcendant intel- 
lectual powers and whose supernatural gifts rendered 
him so distinguished among the leaders of the 
Christian host, included in the extensive area of 
his preaching the Gospel most of the refined com- 
munities of cultured Europe. If the labors of the 
other Apostles who worked for the conversion of 
Europe are not so fully recorded in writing, it should 
not be inferred that their lives were less fruitful to 
the Church, for each most ardently desired, was 
ever ready to sacrifice his life, as nearly all of them 
did, to propagate the Gospel and increase the fold 
of their heavenly Master. Their miracles and other 
great works find a place in the memory through the 
most reliable tradition in relation to them, especially 
in the countries forming the scenes of their Apos- 
tolic labors. 

Antioch had the honor of being the first See of 
St. Peter, Chief of the Apostles. But so great an 
enterprise as the conversion of the world to the 
Christian faith, demanded the most advantageous 
position for the location of the supreme ruling power 
in the Church. No other place could compare with 
Borne in affording St. Peter a suitable site for the 
establishment of the universal Church. Rome was 
not merely the Metropolis of Italy, it was also the 
capital of the whole Roman Empire, comprising 


38 GUIDE tO TRUE RELIGION. 

within its limits the principal countries of Europe, 
Asia and Africa. Her pre-eminent superiority drew 
to her places of business, her law courts and palatial 
residences, visitors from all nations. Hence, a no- 
table feature of her inhabitants was their cosmopoli- 
tan character. Here the principles of Christianity 
could be imparted to the civilized and uncivilized of 
many nations, as from a radiating centre. Here it 
seemed most appropriate to establish, side by side 
with the greatest earthly power, the greatest spiritual 
power, destined to rule and guide the souls of men 
in all nations till the end of the world. To Rome, 
therefore, St. Peter transferred the government of 
the universal Church. 

The establishment of the Apostolic See at Rome, 
honored the city of the Caesars with a celebrity un- 
equalled by any other of the great cities of the 
earth. It was then, and had been, the capital of 
the mightiest political power that has existed since 
the beginning of the world. St. Peter, in selecting 
it as the location of the primatial bishopric in the 
Church, made it also the capital of the Christian 
world, the city of the popes, in which latter rule she 
may be truly said to have eclipsed her former reign. 
Peter was not the only Apostle who wished to make 
Rome the new scene of his labors. The indefatig- 
able Paul also cast a wistful glance towards the 
fruitful harvest to be reaped in the city on the 
Seven hills. The way in which he got his ardent 
wish gratified could scarcely be described as pre- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


39 


arranged by the Apostle of the Jews and Gentiles 
when he wrote his great Epistle to the Romans. 
In many fields he had sown the good seed of the 
Gospel of Christ. He had, moreover, the inex- 
pressible gratification to see it ripen and develop 
into flourishing Christian communities. Paul had 
always a kindly feeling for those of his own nation, 
the Jews, but the latter did not reciprocate his love 
for them when they found he had renounced their 
religion and, in obedience to the call from Christ, 
embraced Christianity. As he hated the Christians 
before his conversion, so they pursued him with 
more intense hatred after his conversion that nothing 
but his blood could pacify them. An opportunity 
for wreaking their vengeance on him was almost 
afforded, when Paul, on a charitable mission, visited 
Jerusalem and was caught by the infuriated Jews at 
the Temple. His martyrdom was denied him then 
by the prompt arrival of the Roman garrison. The 
treatment he received from Festus, the Roman 
governor, at Joppe, to whom he was sent a prisoner 
for trial by the Roman Commander at Jerusalem, 
caused Paul to appeal to Csesar at Rome. His 
appeal being granted, he was conveyed, as minutely 
described in the Acts of the Apostles, to the Capital. 
There he was destined to receive, with St. Peter, 
the glorious crown of martyrdom. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Reception of Christianity by the Nations 
of the Earth. 

TTOR many centuries before the origin of Chris- 
•** tianity there prevailed throughout the nations 
of the earth the belief in a plurality of gods. 
Diverse doctrines found honored teachers and de- 
voted adherents. Almost every nation or people 
had its own particular gods, and its own distinctive 
form of religious worship. There were gods in the 
popular deification of the inanimate and the animate 
creatures, varying from the creeping reptile to the 
sluggish ox and ponderous elephant. Some there 
were of a higher civilization, of more noble and 
enlightened minds, who rightly thought it beneath 
their dignity as human beings to offer to such base 
objects the tribute of their greatest homage, the 
honors acknowledged to be due to the deity. These 
satisfied the cravings of the mind for a fit object of 
religious worship, by forming systems of religion in 
which the human form of an excelling character was 
ascribed to the conceived beings worthy of divine 
honors. Such were the religions of the Greeks 
and the Romans, the two generally acknowledged 
most enlightened nations of antiquity. 

40 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


41 


It should not be thought incredible if even with- 
out revelation some of the most developed minds of 
these peoples should arrive at the conclusion of the 
existence of one supreme being. Such a belief is 
attributed to Socrates and Plato. Not only, how- 
ever, to these eminent Greek philosophers must the 
belief in the unity of God be attributed, but to 
many others also. The following quotation from 
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is given as proof : 

“ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, 
against all ungodliness and injustice of those men 
that detain the truth of God in injustice. Because 
that which is known of God is manifest in them. 
For God hath manifested it to them. For the 
invisible things of Him from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made : His eternal power also and 
divinity ; so that they are inexcusable. Because 
that, when they knew God, they have not glorified 
Him as God, nor given thanks : but became vain 
in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was dark- 
ened : for professing themselves to be wise, they 
became fools. And they changed the glory of the 
incorruptible God, into the likeness of the image of 
a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed 
beasts, and of creeping things. Wherefore God 
gave them up to the desires of their own heart unto 
unclean ness : to dishonor their own bodies among 
themselves : who changed the truth of God into a 
lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather 


42 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” 

( Romans , ch. I, v, 18-25.) 

From this passage of unquestionable authority it 
is evident that men, at least learned men, were not 
primarily devoid of the knowledge of the Supreme 
Being, or true God. But not appreciating such 
knowledge as it deserved, not giving thanks to the 
Almighty for the enlightenment they received, but 
rather taking occasion therefrom for conceit and 
self-exaltation, they became proud, incurring mental 
darkness, leading to that depravity and abandon- 
ment so forcibly expressed by the words of the 
Apostle. 

Another reason may be given for the withholding 
of the knowledge of the true God by the sages of 
the world. It would be no slight hazard to inno- 
vate in religious matters. If a philosopher, or any 
man eminent for mental attainments, wished to 
propagate a new belief according to his convictions, 
he had to reckon with the disposition of those 
among whom he intended to sow the seeds of his 
doctrine. For, as the religion of a nation may 
generally be said to be coeval with its origin, long- 
practised ceremonies and religious ordinances are 
deemed as sacred ; so that the introduction of a 
system opposed to them will arouse the hostility of 
the people, whose wrath may not be appeased with 
less than the innovator’s head. Socrates with the 
Athenians affords an example. Few, if any, will 
be found to expose themselves to bodily injury, 


guide to true religion. 


43 


much less to loss of life, for the sake of any evolved 
system, however cherished. 

Briefly, then, the religions prevailing over the 
earth at the advent of Christianity were such as 
came under the power of the senses. To eradicate 
the various systems of false religions was the object 
of the propagation of the doctrine of Christ. A 
vast enterprise, universally admitted a superhuman 
undertaking in the estimation of worldlings and 
pagan philosophers. Such it would be indeed were 
success dependent on human power alone, but the 
preachers of the Christian faith did not rely solely 
nor principally on human efforts : no, they were 
equipped with supernatural means, as their mission 
was chiefly a spiritual one. They did not go forth 
to conquer the nations for their Master with the 
might of arms. They did not threaten death, de- 
vastation or subjection to those who differed from 
them, or who refused to accept their doctrine. They 
did not possess the protection or influence of the 
great ones of the earth to aid them in the prosecu- 
tion of their arduous mission. They went forth in 
humility, with love for all, to cheerfully bear injuries 
for the propagation of faith in Christ, rather than to 
offer violence to those who refused to accept it. 
The characteristic features of the Apostles and dis- 
ciples of Christ favorably impressed the multitudes 
wherever they went, because conformable to the ideal 
of a virtuous being. It was not only the virtuous 
lives of the teachers of the new religion, however, 


44 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


that drew forth the willing hearers, but the purity 
and sublimity of their doctrine, so capable of pro- 
ducing holy lives. People had never heard the like 
before. Its inculcation of spiritual detachment from 
the riches of the world that man might enrich him- 
self for life eternal ; of self-denial, that renouncing 
the sordid pleasures of the senses, he might entitle 
himself to those celestial pleasures for both soul and 
body in his future state from which no satiety would 
make him recoil, as is so ruinously experienced by 
the pleasure lover on earth ; of charity and brotherly 
love, hitherto unknown in the intercourse of man 
with man, rare cases excepted ; a love that enjoined 
well-wishing and doing of good, not only to friends, 
relatives or whoever conferred benefits, but also to 
strangers, even to such as would inflict injury, to 
enemies. No stranger, no more unexpected, yet no 
more mind-ruling doctrine, could be enunciated 
than what the Apostles preached to the peoples of 
the earth for the first time. It may be reasonably 
assumed that a pleasing eloquence also graced their 
discourses, aiding not a little in gaining a favorable 
reception for their doctrine from their audiences, to 
be subsequently crowned with the grace of conver- 
sion. That Paul possessed this oratorical gift so 
much desired by public speakers there is sufficient 
evidence. One recorded instance of its acknowl- 
edgment by one of his audience, and that a dis- 
tinguished one, may suffice. It came to the Apostle, 
however, not as an applause, but rather as an 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


45 


undeserved rebuke. It was that of Festus, the 
Roman Governor, before whom at Caesarea Paul 
defended himself against the accusations of the Jews. 
“Paul,” said the Governor, misjudging the speaker, 
“ much learning hath made thee mad.” Yet, ad- 
mitting the valuable accompaniment of an attractive 
eloquence, to a doctrine so far transcending all 
existing creeds formulated by the human mind as 
to evince to a discriminating, unprejudiced judge its 
supernatural origin ; it can scarcely be reasonably 
doubted that the progress of Christianity would be 
much slower, the limits of its rule much less ex- 
tended, and the number of its adherents considerably 
smaller than they have been, had it, even with the 
virtuous and edifying lives of its propagators, been 
the only means for its rapid advancement and 
glorious triumph. 

Another most potent factor was held in reserve, 
capable of moving the most obdurate to admit its 
heavenly support and, therefore, the necessity of 
accepting its teachings in order to merit eternal hap- 
piness. This is the power of performing miracles. 
It contributed largely to the diffusion of Christian 
doctrine and the establishment of the Church among 
the nations. Yet this palpable proof of divine power 
did not always convey conviction to the prejudiced 
spectator. It is credible that many regarded true 
miracles as merely the performances of magicians. 
Such would appear to be the case in many of the 
martyrdoms in which Christians were repeatedly 


46 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


preserved from harm when exposed to modes of 
torture which in ordinary cases caused death. Some 
of the occurrences produced by the incantations of 
the magicians were so wonderful as to make one 
infer their power of inducing a superstitious people, 
and such as were not educated, of which condition 
were the great majority of all nations both before 
and long after the establishment of Christianity, to 
ascribe to their human authors a supernatural power. 
The Egyptians, especially, advanced the magic art 
to a high degree of proficiency. The Magi who 
contested with Moses and Aaron before the court of 
Pharaoh, as recorded in Scripture, produced such 
wonderful results by their magic arts as to bear the 
closest resemblance to true miracles. They were 
finally, however, forced to yield to the Hebrews, 
acknowledging the divine power in the workings of 
the servants of God. So in the days of the Apostles 
there were some who practised the art with much 
success. They generally came to grief when they 
came in contact with the preachers of the doctrine 
of Christ. The case of the magician Barjesu, at 
Paphos, in Cyprus, is a notable instance. He tried 
to nullify the effects of Paul's preaching the Christian 
doctrine to the Roman Proconsul, Sergius Paulus. 
He thereby incurred the just wrath of the great 
Apostle, who struck him blind for perversely oppos- 
ing the truth. The Proconsul required no further 
argument for conversion. He immediately sought 
and gained admission into the fold of Christ. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


47 


To the power of working miracles may be rightly 
attributed to a great extent the rapid progress in 
its first age of Christianity. It silenced all active 
opposition, except that of the wilfully obdurate; it 
overawed all minds, both revered and irreverent, 
and it afforded to the wavering, doubting mind an 
irresistible motive for conversion. 

Yet, with so much in its favor to commend it to 
universal acceptance, it should not be thought that 
Christianity had little to contend against. Although 
the people of any country might, as isolated from 
the influence of those more deeply interested in the 
national religion, manifest a favorable disposition 
towards Christianity because of its evident superi- 
ority over all other religions ; yet, under such 
influence, no such favorable disposition could be 
relied upon. It could hardly be expected that re- 
ligious principles tenaciously adhered to, ceremonies 
practised for ages, would be abandoned without a 
struggle at the preaching of a new religion, whose 
declared aim was the overthrow of all others. The 
priests, who derived their maintenance from the 
performance of the sacerdotal duties in the false 
religions, may naturally be deemed hostile to the 
advance of Christianity. There were others, also, 
almost equally interested in the maintenance of those 
religions. The temple, as well as the private dwell- 
ing, displayed the craftsman’s skill in its material 
ornaments. To the tradesman dealing in religious 
articles, then, the intimation of the approach of 


48 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Christianity must have sounded as a threatened 
invasion. St. Paul’s experience of the silversmiths 
of Ephesus, affords an example of how the manu- 
facturers of religious articles elsewhere might be 
expected to receive the preachers of the Gospel of 
Christ. The Apostle caused a commotion among 
the Ephesian silversmiths, whilst they, in turn, 
caused a commotion in the city against the zealous 
intruder, manifestly in their own interest, to secure 
a continuance of their revenue from religious sources 
and in the interest of their unconscious goddess, 
Diana. Had the preachers and members of the 
Christian Church no other enemies but these to 
encounter, no great anxiety for their safety might 
be felt, provided they had the protection of the civil 
power to assure them. But, in the denial of this 
protection, lay the danger to the believers in the 
new doctrine. 

As long as the Christians were few in number 
they excited but little hostility in the ruling classes, 
civil or military. But when the good seed of the 
word of God, fructified by the operation of the grace 
of God, the number of believers in Christ, at first 
small, was multiplied manifold. They made their 
presence felt not only in the towns and cities of the 
provinces of the Roman Empire, but Rome, the 
Capital, awoke to a sense of being confronted by an 
ever-increasing host, that threatened to supplant 
the long-practised worship of Jupiter and inferior 
fancied gods with the worship of the true God with 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


49 


the Most Holy Trinity of persons. As the in- 
creasing numbers of the Israelites caused grave 
apprehension to the powerful Egyptian, so also did 
the Church of Christ, ever fruitful in augmenting 
the number of her children, give disquieting alarm 
to the mighty Roman. And, as in the former case, 
cruel and inhuman measures were employed to 
repress the growth of the Hebrews, so unmerciful 
edicts went forth from the Roman emperor to stifle 
that of Christianity. Willing minions, and those 
interested in the maintenance of false religion, were 
ready to carry those into effect with unheard-of 
tortures. Then began the greatest religious struggle 
the world has ever seen. In vain was the art of 
persuasion practised on the neophyte, or recently 
baptized Christian ; in vain did the wily Roman try 
the dazzling reward for abandonment of the faith 
in Christ ; in vain did he apply fire and sword to 
stem the tide of Christian heroes. No army went 
forth to battle animated with confidence of victory 
as did those Christians to receive the crown of 
martyrdom. 

In the great persecutions of the first three centu- 
ries of the Christian era, although the repressive 
measures used compelled the Christians to perform 
the rites of their religion privately in the catacombs 
and other places remote from the public gaze, yet 
they completely failed, not only to extirpate them, 
but even to diminish their number. The blood of 
the martyrs it appeared rendered the vineyard of the 
4 


50 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Lord still more fruitful in producing a new and 
larger host to take the place of those immolated. 

A religion ennobled by so mauy heroic victims 
for their faith, aroused the desire of a closer and 
unprejudiced study of it among the learned and in- 
fluential. The result was an influx to the Christian 
fold at different times of the higher classes of Roman 
society. Members of it might be found in the most 
noble families, even the imperial household did not 
escape being imbued with its tenets. Every branch 
of the government, even in the storms of persecu- 
tion, could show its Christian contingent. They 
abounded in the army. Maniples, centuries, cohorts 
and legions bore a Christian character. The de- 
fenders of paganism became dismayed. But whilst 
the imperial eagle hovered over them they had hope 
of stemming the Christian tide. How foolish for 
man to subdue by physical means the minds of his 
species in religious matters ! But they were far 
removed from that advanced civilization and intel- 
lectual progress which condemn religious persecu- 
tion, and innately inculcate that toleration is the 
best policy. 

It is rather strange that men of ordinary knowl- 
edge did not perceive the futility of the most horrible 
repressive measures to diminish the followers of the 
Cross, and take prudent ones to remedy the evil of 
unjust condemnation to excruciating tortures. The 
crisis for Christianity had passed, that of paganism 
had to come. Though slowly, it was surely approach- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


51 


ing. When Christians in considerable numbers were 
found in every class of society, they could no longer 
with safety be despised. They were dreaded. 

The chief element of danger to the believers in 
the gods lay in the military. When Caesar fell in 
the Senate by the assassin’s dagger, he left to aspi- 
rants to imperial honors the most dazzling position 
— that of swaying the greatest of empires. The 
claims of heredity to fill the lofty throne of the 
Caesars were very often ignored. That honor was 
generally awarded in later times to the man of the 
army’s choice. But the vast extent of the empire, 
together with the unsettled condition of some of the 
conquered provinces, necessitated the maintenance 
of more than one army. Hence, in the reluctant 
exits of the emperors from their stormy pinnacle of 
earthly glory, there were sometimes as many candi- 
dates for supreme power as there were Roman 
armies. This rivalry not only constituted a menace 
to permanent peace, but considered in relation to the 
growth of the Christian element in the military, it 
must have caused some uneasiness to those char- 
acterized with zeal for the worship of the gods. 
Naturally, the Christian soldiers w r ould unanimously 
support the officer who favored Christianity, casting 
a wistful glance towards the crownless throne of 
Caesar. 

For three centuries after the Christian era Roman 
paganism had been successfully preserved by the 
emperor, the soldier, and the citizen, from overthrow 


52 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


by her dreaded foe, Christianity. The long, bloody 
line of persecutions told more impressively of a 
hatred to be satiated only with the most inhuman 
species of torture than ever disgraced a civilized 
community, and in comparison with which the pro- 
scriptions of the Marian and Syllan factions must 
yield the palm for inhuman atrocity. 

Paganism had seen its halcyon days. It had seen, 
with impotent rage, the inefficacy of its fiendish 
devices for stifling the growth of Christianity. It 
had yet to be the sad, abased witness of its own 
overthrow with the triumph of the Cross. 


CHAPTER Y. 


Triumph of Christianity oyer Paganism. 

Tj^OR three centuries the Christian Church stood 
successfully the crucial test of persecution. 
Instead of being diminished, the vast increase of the 
number of her members in all the nations of Europe 
as well as in the principal ones of Asia and Africa, 
afforded much consolation to her rulers and zealous 
sons, when remembering her many temporal losses 
by the martyrdom of her fairest children. The 
character of the reigning emperor might be taken as 
an index to the treatment of the Christians, for his 
time at least, which, for the majority of emperors, 
was of short duration. Some were of a more tolerant, 
humane disposition than others. Though from the 
best of them the Christians had little to hope for, 
yet from some they had nothing to fear : they were 
not all blood-thirsty. At the beginning of the 
fourth century a novel spectacle presented itself to 
the subjects of the empire. Seven ambitious aspi- 
rants contested for imperial honors. They were 
Maximian, Severus, Maximin, Lioinius, Galerius, 
Maxentius and Constantine. They had all distinct, 
separate commands. They were all, as far as known, 

53 


54 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the last excepted, pronounced pagans. None were so 
divinely gifted as to foresee the issue of the struggle 
so favorable to Christianity. Constantine was the 
most youthful as well as the most interesting to 
Christians, as to his future character and the con- 
dition of the Church in the event of his triumph 
over all competitors, if his career should not be 
shortened by unexpected defeat. Though not a 
Christian he had Christian blood in his veins, his 
father, Constantius Chlorus, the commander of the 
Roman army in Britain, being a pagan, but his 
mother, the saintly Helena, being a devout Catholic. 
To him are attributed distinguishing natural gifts, 
both of mind and body ; gracefulness of person and 
great intellectual power, a general feature of those 
occupying the first rank for great human achieve- 
ments. When a youth he was given by his father 
as a hostage for good faith, first to Diocletian, and 
subsequently to Galerius. This must have been 
a most undesirable position to a young man of 
Constantine’s capabilities and disposition, yet he 
succeeded in gaining and retaining the esteem and 
good will of the persecutors. His father having 
brought on fever in an expedition against the in- 
habitants of North Britain, Constantine asked and 
obtained permission from Galerius to visit his dying 
parent. At his father’s death at York, he was 
immediately proclaimed Caesar by the unanimous 
voice of the armies of Britain and Gaul, A. D. 306, 
thus elevating him to an eminence hazardous, though 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


55 


dazzling, for so young a man, and bringing him 
into a condition of relations resembling to a degree 
that of shrewd Octavius at the death of Julius 
Caesar. It could hardly be expected that peace could 
long be maintained, when so many powerful rivals 
jealously watched each other to take advantage of 
any incident or circumstance productive of personal 
aggrandizement. 

Maximian and Severus were the first to test their 
military skill and strength on the field of battle. 
Severus was defeated, but Maximian did not long 
enjoy the fruits of victory, for, incurring the hos- 
tility of his own powerful son Maxentius, for 
intriguing against him, he was banished into Gaul 
by the latter. There his evil genius found occupa- 
tion in plotting against Constantine. Being guilty 
of conspiracy the second time against the commander 
of the legions in Gaul and Britain, young Csesar 
caused him to be removed. Strangulation ended 
his dishonorable career. The death of Galerius in 
A. D. 311, reduced the number of imperial candi- 
dates to four. Of these the most powerful and 
conspicuous were Maxentius and Constantine : upon 
them all eyes were turned. A hostile meeting be- 
tween these ambitious and powerful rivals was 
regarded in the state of affairs as inevitable. Only 
a plausible cause of conflict was wanted. Maxentius 
found one in the strangulation of his parent by the 
orders of his rival, though he himself had sent his 
father into exile for intriguing against him. 


56 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Only superior discipline, long service in Gaul 
and Britain could inspire Constantine with any 
reasonable hope of success. When learning of the 
declaration of war by Maxentius, he led his small 
army of 40,000 men against that of his rival num- 
bering 160,000. Constantine’s march into Italy 
recalls that of Julius Caesar, taking the same direc- 
tion, against Pompeii and the Senate. And, as on 
that occasion the celerity of Caesar’s movements 
disconcerted the scheme of his enemy, so the intrepid 
advance of Constantine over the Alps with a small 
army to meet Maxentius in his own territory must 
have caused the latter some uneasiness, not to say 
anxiety, notwithstanding the vast numerical superi- 
ority of the forces under his command. 

Being a true pagan Maxentius followed the usages 
of Roman commanders going forth to battle. He 
consulted the auguries that he might know the 
disposition of the gods, if they were favorable, 
and was assured of obtaining a complete victory. 
Having made extensive preparation to insure suc- 
cess in the struggle for supremacy, he led forth his 
vast army to battle, but not far, as Constantine had 
arrived at the Mulvian Bridge only two miles from 
Rome, where he had taken up a good position. No 
results so important attended any military encounter 
since the memorable battle at Pharsalia. It was 
not the interests alone of the contending leaders 
that gave unusual significance to the approaching 
engagement. Behind the thought of the ambitious 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


57 


commanders there was another, less prominent, but 
far more engrossing and far reaching, affecting the 
inhabitants of the empire; it was the effect of the 
issue of the struggle on religious worship. 

Maxentius might be said to represent the cause 
of Paganism. He was profusely supported by the 
worshippers of the gods and cheered by them to the 
combat. On the other side it was no secret that 
Constantine, though not professing Christianity, yet 
favored the Christians. These considerations gave 
rise to diverse speculations to the two great religious 
divisions of the empire, pagan and Christian, con- 
cerning the future situation, and caused many on 
this account to be interested in the issue of the 
approaching engagement. Constantine, before arriv- 
ing so close to the city, knowing the imposing array 
of the enemy, could hardly escape a doubt of victory 
crowning his martial efforts, though seconding a 
fearless courage by the skilful disposition of a pru- 
dent commander. He also sought the aid of the 
Deity but not that of any pagan god ; he prayed for 
success to the God of his devout mother, Helena, to 
the God of the Christians ; for not long before the 
battle he was favored with a vision in which he was 
instructed to place at the head of his army a new 
and strange standard for a Roman army, and victory 
would follow. The standard was not the familiar 
eagle of Jupiter, but the cross; the sign of the Re- 
deemer of men. At different times in the course of 
her existence Rome beheld deadly conflicts both 


58 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


within and beyond her walls. The encounter be- 
tween the well-disciplined array of Constantine 
and the immense host of Maxentius taking place 
almost in view of her citizens, eclipsed all others 
both in magnitude and results, affecting the religious 
condition of the subjects of the empire. 

The battle, which was fought on the 28th of 
October, 312, resulted in the complete overthrow 
of Maxentius who perished in the Tiber. It would 
be attributing too much to the victor to ascribe his 
great victory wholly to the superiority of Constan- 
tine and that of his troops over Maxentius and 
his scattered legions. The cause must be sought 
elsewhere. Maxentius had not merely numerical 
superiority over his rival, but his army was also 
composed of reliable veterans. The thoughtful 
reader of history will, therefore, have no hesitation 
in acknowledging the operation of an invisible force, 
transcending all human power, giving victory to 
Constantine. 

Rome lay at his feet, whilst the western portion of 
the empire acknowledged him as its master. The 
conqueror entered the capital in triumph with his 
victorious followers on the day of battle. The 
Labarum, or standard surmounted with the cross, de- 
throned and replaced that of Jupiter in the Capitol. 

The triumph of Constantine was the triumph of 
Christianity. Its members could after so many 
repressive measures, confiscations and persecutions 
breathe the air of true liberty. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


59 


Constantine did not immediately issue the edict 
granting them liberty of worship ; he wished to act 
in concert in the matter with his colleague in the 
empire, Licinius, who ruled the eastern portion. 
They met at Milan, where, acting harmoniously, 
they published the edict giving to the Christians 
equality of liberty in religious matters with the 
pagans. 

It was the cause of much rejoicing to all classes 
of Christians throughout the world. Paganism, 
however, was not dead, it might be rallied with ease 
by some enterprising leader, for it claimed still the 
bulk of the subjects of the empire. To attempt to 
restore it to its pristine glory in the west, at least, 
would be surrounded with such peril, with Constan- 
tine supreme, as to deter the boldest from leading 
in its cause. 

Even in the eastern part of the empire, where 
circumstances were more favorable to it, the altered 
condition of things after Maxentius’ defeat de- 
manded a policy of moderation from the ruler, if 
he hoped to preserve it from an overthrow similar 
to what it had experienced in the west. Such 
mild government was not to be expected, however, 
from Licinius. He may have been tired with the 
ambition of reigning supreme in the empire, and for 
this purpose provoke a quarrel with his powerful 
colleague in the west. He may have anticipated 
trouble from the conqueror of Maxentius, and 
resolved beforehand to strengthen his position. 


60 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


To gain popularity he renewed the persecution of 
the Christians, a mode of winning pagan support 
congenial to a pagan emperor, but a means to be 
eschewed at all times by a good, humane ruler, 
and one which would hardly be utilized by any 
prudent sovereign in the altered condition of affairs 
in the west. 

This course of action aroused the indignation of 
Constantine, for it was a direct violation of the edict 
of Milan granting liberty of worship to the Chris- 
tians issued conjointly by the emperors. Besides, it 
might be easily understood as a rejoinder to the new 
policy favorable to the Christians inaugurated by 
Constantine. If the Christians might justly regard 
Constantine as their champion, the pagans could find 
in Licinius, their greatest leader, a persecutor of the 
Christians and zealous avenger of neglect of the 
gods. Such a perturbed state of affairs could only 
be expected to terminate in war. Both sides made 
extensive preparations for the decisive struggle 
which would make the victor supreme ruler of the 
whole empire. This strife, unlike previous hostili- 
ties, bore a religious character, and may appropri- 
ately be termed a religious war, than which no 
struggle sways more effectively the inferior element, 
the passions in the conduct of men. 

Constantine, finding Licinius determined to violate 
and ignore the edict granting liberty to the Chris- 
tians, put his legions in motion to enforce it by the 
sword. The armies of the opposing emperors met 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 61 

at Byzantium, where, after a well contested battle, 
the Licinian host was put to flight, A. D. 323. 
Though defeated, Licinius was neither overthrown 
nor subdued. Constantine does not appear to have 
moved with Caesarian celerity in the pursuit in 
order to crush all further attempts at opposition. 

The defeated emperor resolved to retrieve his loss 
by the recent defeat. Time and means were not 
wanting to encourage him with the hope that Jupi- 
ter’s eagle might yet soar triumphant over the 
standard of the Christians. 

He soon found himself at the head of a consider- 
able force, and the following year his army had 
increased to such an extent as to inspire him with 
courage and confidence in the contemplated renewal 
of the strife for supreme power. The hostile em- 
perors met a second time at Chalcedon, where a 
decisive battle was fought, A. D. 324, with the 
complete overthrow of Licinius, who was forced 
to acknowledge Constantine his master. The con- 
queror, it is stated, gave his vanquished enemy a 
promise that his life would be spared. No light 
stain is attached to the character of Constantine by 
the violation of this promise, for shortly afterwards 
the unfortunate Licinius was put to death. 

Whilst not attributing much scrupulosity to Con- 
stantine in political matters, it would be well to 
know and consider the existing conditions and 
circumstances of the time, before judging so unjust 
and merciless a crime apart from extenuating cir- 


62 


GUIDE tO TRUE RELrGlOtf. 


cumstances. The existence of Licinius would, in 
all probability, be a source of uneasiness not only to 
Constantine but also to the empire. Imprisonment 
in a fortress might, in ordinary cases, be deemed a 
sufficient measure for safety ; but in the case of a 
prisoner of such ability and popularity as Licinius, 
it could hardly be judged adequate for removing 
all causes capable of effecting the liberation of the 
prisoner. Officials are not incorruptible, and history 
attests that bribes offered irresistible temptation to 
men esteemed far beyond moral corruption. 

Licinius, though dethroned by defeat, retained his 
place in the hearts of the pagans; whilst he lived 
there was hope to them of the re-establishment of 
the worship of the gods and the overthrow of Chris- 
tianity. Wealth was not wanting to his adherents 
to exert its influence in his liberation when it should 
be undertaken. Veterans and innumerable recruits 
would flock to his standard at the first intimation 
of his escape, and then the horrors of civil and 
religious war would be fiercely renewed. 

It is probable that the weighty motive of securing 
the good and peace of the empire alone influenced 
Constantine in putting his imperial captive to death, 
if he be the cause of Licinius’ death as related in 
history. 

By the overthrow of Maxentius, Paganism re- 
ceived a mortal wound ; by that of Licinius, its 
death-blow. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


63 


The emblem of Christianity shone brightly over 
the vast empire when Constantine laid aside the 
sword to give peace to the many nations acknowl- 
edging his sway. For three hundred years the 
Christian Church evidenced by her gory wounds 
the terrific onslaughts of her most powerful enemy. 
The smile of victory graced her amiable counte- 
nance as she gazed over the expansive field of battle, 
strewn with the statues of the gods. Now, at length, 
she could look forward to a period of much needed 
repose. Her worst foe had to yield and acknowl- 
edge her victorious. 

Paganism once overthrown could never afterwards 
regain lost power, nor ever hope to debase the minds 
of those who had received the true faith. 

Constantine, after his victory over Maxentius, 
manifested in many ways his desire for the welfare 
of the Church. Though no Christian, few Chris- 
tian rulers have ever equalled him in protection and 
generosity toward those of their own faith. 

The property of the Church had been confiscated 
under pagan emperors : all this he caused to be 
restored to her. Other boons were conferred upon 
her : her clergy were exempt from public functions. 
The Church always compassionated those deprived 
of liberty, and when in her power raised the slave 
to freedom. Such freedom was, under Constantine, 
acknowledged by the civil power. The divisions of 
the army were provided with chaplains to attend to 
the spiritual wants of the Christian soldiers. Dona- 


64 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


tions and legacies to the Church were approved of 
and encouraged. The revolting gladiatorial spec- 
tacles were prohibited as unbecoming a civilized 
people and contrary to the teachings of the Church. 
The due observance of Sunday also found a zeal- 
ous promoter in Constantine. Henceforth capital 
punishment by crucifixion was prohibited by edict. 
These are some of the beneficent fruits of the policy 
of reformation pursued by Constantine when the 
din of war had died away, affording him leisure to 
attend to the internal reorganization and prosperity 
of the empire. 

Though favoring Christianity, Constantine granted 
freedom of worship to all his subjects. He forbade 
the persecution or molestation of any man on account 
of his religious principles, thus inaugurating an era 
of religious freedom unknown to the nations. The 
author of so great favors to the Church of Christ 
as well as benefits to humanity, strange to say, 
deferred his formal conversion to Christianity to 
the last days of his life, receiving baptism only 
shortly before his death. 

The Church victorious over external enemies, was 
now forced to labor for internal peace threatened by 
some within her fold. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Heresy. 

A MONG the means designed for consolidating 
^ His Church, Christ gave special prominence 
to the necessity of unity among its members. 

St. John relates the affecting prayer he offered to 
his heavenly Father to preserve His Church from 
the evils of division, and to grant that the spirit of 
perfect agreement should reign continually among 
its members, thus distinguishing them from all others 
as His true disciples. The history of the Church 
testifies to the great necessity for spiritual union, 
and that our Saviour’s prayer was not superfluous. 

So numerous as well as ancient have been the dis- 
agreements in matters of faith, that they are coeval 
with the Apostolic age, leaving their baneful marks 
on almost every century of the Church’s existence. 

St. Paul complains bitterly of the dissensions in 
the Church, which he had established at Corinth. 
“ Now I beseech you, brethren,” writes the Apostle, 
“ by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ : that you 
speak the same thing : and that there be no schisms 
among you : but that you be perfect in the same 
mind and in the same judgment.” 

5 


65 


66 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The same Apostle, in his second epistle to the 
Corinthians, labors strenuously for the same object, 
their preservation from false doctrine or heresy. 
“But I fear,” he writes, “lest as the serpent seduced 
Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be 
corrupted and fall from the simplicity that is in 
Christ.” And verse 13th : “For such false prophets 
are deceitful workmen transforming themselves into 
the Apostles of Christ, and no wonder : for Satan 
himself transformeth himself into an angel of light.” 
Subsequently, in the same epistle, he narrates his 
own trials and sufferings for the sake of the gospel 
of Christ to counteract the evil effect of the boasting 
of false teachers. 

St. Paul, it seems, apprehended more danger and 
encountered more hostility, from those whom he 
designated false teachers, than the average share of 
the Apostles. One cause of this opposition may be 
found in the character of the people among whom 
he principally labored ; they were Greeks, or those 
morally and otherwise affected through intercon- 
verse with the Greeks. In his reference to the 
Athenians, he mentions some of the characteristics 
of the Hellenic race. They were curious, seekers 
of novelty and fond of discussion. History does 
not speak otherwise of this remarkable people. The 
democratic principles of their nation, though they 
had lost national independence, contributed largely 
to the disposition of investigating, discussing and 
finally disputing over subjects affording topics of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


67 


conversation, coming naturally or accidentally, 
otherwise presented by the faculties of ingenious, 
long-practised mental purveyors. They were of the 
land that gave birth to a Socrates, a Plato, a 
surpassingly intellectual Aristotle and an eloquent 
Demosthenes. The tongue was to them both an 
instrument of pleasure and a powerful weapon in 
fierce combat. 

Their religion resembled that of their more 
powerful rivals, the Romans. They had their Zeus, 
corresponding to the Roman Jupiter, and an im- 
posing array of inferior deities invested with super- 
natural qualities to suit the popular demand and 
the spiritual cravings of the human heart, which 
had not yet arrived at the plane of its adequate 
satisfaction in the knowledge of the true and only 
God. Such a people would naturally regard new 
systems of belief as religious innovations evolved 
from the abstruse studies of philosophers, and sub- 
ject them to a methodical investigation not always 
accompanied with respect or reverence for the new 
doctrine. Bearing this in mind, it may be easily 
understood how the Athenians received the prin- 
ciples of the Christian doctrine from St. Paul in 
their national assembly, the Areopagus. Their 
levity on that occasion, in the reception of the 
enunciation of the principles of the true religion, 
manifested itself in remarkable contrast to the re- 
spectful and reverential manner in which they were 
received elsewhere. 


68 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Being of a fickle disposition, it was not at all 
surprising to find those of them who had embraced 
Christianity investigating the merits of the new 
doctrine in the fluctuating mental disposition 
peculiar to them. A reasonable and not unneces- 
sary cause may, therefore, be attributed to St. Paul 
for writing so much in an epistolary manner to 
the churches which he had established among the 
Greek-speaking portion of his converts to Chris- 
tianity. He felt, no doubt, anxiety for them in 
his absence, lest false teachers should enter the 
churches which he had established and corrupt the 
pure doctrine which they had received from him. 
Yet the Greeks were not the only portion of the 
Church from whom internal trouble might be 
apprehended. Error and heresy have found dis- 
tinguished authors, as well as active propagators, 
in many lands. They are to be found in almost 
every century of the Churches existence. Even in 
the first century appear the Simonian, the Cerin- 
thian and Ebionite heresies. Subsequent centuries 
were still more prolific in their crop of heresies. 
Some were of slight importance in producing any 
detrimental effect on any great portion of the faith- 
ful, much less on the whole Church. They may be 
termed local secessions from true Christian doctrine, 
being for the most part confined to the districts or 
regions in which they had their rise, such as those 
above named. Others were of a more dangerous 
nature, of a widespread tendency, exercising a bane- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 69 

ful influence, not merely in the nation or district in 
which they arose, but over a large portion of the 
Church and among all classes. 

The greatest of heresies was Arianism. Arius was 
a Libyan by birth. He possessed mental ability 
above the average. His natural endowments he 
supplemented by practical acquisitions, an attractive 
and persuasive eloquence together with a studied 
affability. Exterior austerity, so impressive in the 
lives of the saints of the early Church, was not 
neglected. Hence, Arius presented an apparent 
character worthy of the appreciation and commen- 
dation of the good. Yet, underneath this pious 
exterior, these distinguished mental attributes, there 
lurked a deep-seated ambition, an unbending pride. 
His first offence he committed when a deacon by 
obstinately sustaining the Meletian schism. Remon- 
stration was lost on Arius. His spiritual superior, 
Peter, patriarch of Alexandria, found it necessary 
to use extreme measures and excommunicated him. 
But Arius was not without friends, and Peter dying, 
Achilles, his successor, removed from Arius the 
sentence of excommunication. Arius thus found a 
friend in the patriarch Achilles, who subsequently 
conferred upon him the dignity of the priesthood. 
It is alleged his self-esteem raised in him aspiration 
to the patriarchal see at the death of Achilles. The 
choice of the Alexandrians, however, did not honor 
Arius but Alexander with the patriarchal dignity. 
Irritated with disappointment and deeming it oppor- 


70 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


tune to assert an opinion contrary to orthodox faith 
which he had conceived and cherished, he astounded 
the synod of Alexandria by boldly denying the 
divinity of Christ. Alexander, hoping to lead back 
to orthodoxy his erring priest, tried the effect of 
mild, paternal treatment to a turbulent son. Arius, 
however, persisting in his heresy, remaining obsti- 
nate to all persuasion, the patriarch judged it ex- 
pedient to refer the case to a national council. One 
hundred bishops condemned his infamous opinion 
and excommunicated Arius. Though severed from 
communion with the Church in his own country, 
the heresiarch did not despair of seeing his cherished 
opinion prevail and obtain recognition in the sum 
of Christian belief. He repaired to Palestine, where 
it is alleged through misrepresentations he obtained 
episcopal absolution from his excommunication. 
Whether through deception or not he was absolved, 
it cannot be denied that he found zealous supporters 
among the members of the eastern episcopacy. 

Natural mental endowments enhanced by studious 
acquisitions, the mastered subtleties of philosophic 
argument succeeded in seducing some minds of good 
disposition, representing to them error under the 
colors of truth. 

Arius determined to enter upon an ecclesiastical 
campaign of huge dimensions. Like a prudent 
strategist, he studied where he might assail his 
enemies more easily and with reasonable hope of 
possible, if not probable, success. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


71 


Nicomedia offered the most desirable theatre for 
promoting the success of Arianism. Thither he be- 
took himself. Soon he won the favor and support 
of its bishop, Eusebius, and through the latter gained 
the protection of Constantia, sister of Constantine, 
the emperor. This was no slight advantage. 

The prospects of Arianism began to look bright. 
In the meantime the heresy caused such commotion 
in the east, that a general council was universally 
regarded as the decisive authority for settling the 
question. 

Arius, knowing the import of a decision of such 
an assemblage, made all preparation possible to win 
favor from the fathers of the council and their 
approbation of his doctrine. He had estimated the 
nature and extent of the opposition to his opinions. 
The Church had lately emerged from the stormy 
times of persecution, when it was extremely difficult 
for Christians to apply themselves to profound 
study, to make those mental acquisitions which 
procure the public estimation of being learned. 
But if the bishops had not the deep and varied 
knowledge of their modern representatives, they 
had, however, the orthodox Christian faith, sincere, 
exemplary piety, a keen perception of the true from 
false doctrine. • 

Being men of holiness, they believed in divine 
inspiration to precede human learning in the solu- 
tion of questions regarding matters of faith. Arius 
exhibited a remarkable contrast in his character to 


72 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


that of the bishops who were to be his judges. He 
relied principally for the success of his innovation 
upon human efforts. Shrewdness and adroit tactics 
were brought into requisition to win the good will 
of all those capable of influencing the decision of 
the council. . Especially did he rely upon his own 
ability to bring, by philosophic, convincing argu- 
ments, the fathers over to his side. It may be 
readily understood, therefore, that neither fear nor 
hesitation made him dread the summons to appear 
before the three hundred and eighteen members of 
the episcopacy, who formed the Nicene Council, to 
be heard and hear its sentence. If the majority of 
the bishops were more noted for virtue, firmness of 
faith, and in general for sanctified, Christian lives, 
than for rare mental acquisitions, yet there were 
some among them who were no mean scholars, who 
availed themselves of human learning to develop and 
render more efficient their natural gifts. Several 
distinguished for their attainments would be found 
ready when called upon to enter into the arena of 
mental contest against the gifted heresiarch. 

No labored effects, however, were required of any 
of the mitred prelates. There appeared on the scene 
a young man destined to act a conspicuous part in a 
troublous time of religious commotion. This was 
the celebrated Athanasius, then a deacon of the 
Church at Alexandria. He accompanied Alexan- 
der, his patriarch, to the council. Not less gifted 
than Arius, of transcendent mental acquisitions the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 73 

result of profound study, of eloquence attractive 
and impressive and a most formidable dialectician, 
Athanasius presented a dreaded opponent to the 
astute heresiarch. 

When the council ascertained definitely the opinion 
upon which it was convoked to pass judgment, an 
opinion denying the divinity of Christ, a primary 
principle of Christianity coeval with its foundation 
and so dearly cherished by its members, there ap- 
peared a spontaneous unanimity to proceed, without 
waiting for arguments, to a summary condemnation 
of Arius and his impious teaching. It was no 
secret, however, that Arius had many friends, not 
only among the inferior clergy, but also among the 
members of the episcopacy. These could scarcely 
be satisfied with a mere condemnation without being 
previously led thereto by convincing argument. The 
fathers of the council, for many reasons, deemed it 
prudent to allow Arius to adduce proofs in support 
of his novel and disturbing opinion. Arius felt 
gratified as well as confident of success. His assur- 
ance, however, was rudely shaken by the refuting 
arguments of Athanasius. Met at every point by 
the able deacon, he had to retire discomfited from 
the struggle. 

Though vanquished, Arius was not subdued. But 
his case was lost. The deliberation of the council 
found no obstacle in arriving at a decision adverse 
to the arraigned. His doctrine was pronounced 
heretical and accordingly condemned. 


74 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Excommunication fell upon the heresiarch and 
his adherents so that, as far as the Catholic Church 
was concerned, a reasonable hope was entertained of 
peace in the future, the cause of trouble being re- 
moved. Sad disappointment, however, darkened 
the bright prospects. Though prostrate in the dust 
at Nice, Arianism was not dead. It soon recovered 
to such an extent as to give serious trouble in 
different quarters. Even in the council there were 
found two staunch supporters who were willing to 
go into exile with its author, rather than abandon 
its distinctive tenet. These were Theonas, bishop 
of Marmarica, and Secundus, bishop of Plotemais, 
who refused to sign the formula drawn up by the 
council declaring the Son to be true God, born, not 
made, and consubstantial with the Father. 

In connection with Arianism there appeared a 
new element asserting its right in the disposition 
of religious controversies of an exacting nature. 
Different motives may be alleged for Constantine 
seeking to bring peace internally as well as extern- 
ally to the Christian fold. However good and well 
meant his purpose, yet the interference of the civil 
or military power, though it may have been gratify- 
ing to the troubled rulers of the Church to be aided 
by the secular authority to give effect to the decision 
of the Church by banishing those who had been 
condemned for heresy or schism, must be regarded 
as purely assumptive on the part of the civil powers, 
not at all of right or capable of producing the de- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


75 


sired effect, a fruitful universal peace, as if religious 
tranquility should be obtained by means of the 
sword. 

It is a dangerous privilege to admit the inter- 
ference of civil authority in religious affairs, even in 
the punishment of those condemned for heresy or 
otherwise, because the same power may be turned 
against the Church if the ruler should change his 
opinion and, becoming favorable to the heresy, per- 
secute the members of the Church, which actually 
occurred in the course of the Arian heresy. 

Powerful intercession and subtle persuasion soon 
made themselves felt on Constantine’s mind in behalf 
of Arius and his heresy. The emperor turning 
against the Church, threatened with banishment the 
Catholic prelates who might not receive the heresi- 
arch into communion. Thus Arianism for a time 
became triumphant, being well supported by the 
secular power. Constantine’s favor towards Arian- 
ism was gained by his compliance with the dying 
request of his sister, Constantia, who had, not long 
after its inception, embraced the Arian heresy. 
None of the faithful bishops complied with the 
Emperor’s mandate. 

Alexandria was the centre of opposition to Arian- 
ism in the east, even supported and advanced by 
imperial power. Its patriarch, Athanasius, the 
redoubtable enemy of the heresy, being deposed 
by a synod of Arian bishops, assembled at Tyre, 
was sent into exile. 


76 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Arius endeavored to occupy the Alexandrian See, 
but in vain. The populace continued firm in the 
true faith, faithful to their banished prelate, so Arius 
was again disappointed in his hope of being installed 
in the coveted Alexandrian patriarchal office. 

At length a heretical synod of servile bishops, 
held at Jerusalem, admitted the heresiarch into 
communion. The emperor seconded this act of 
recognition by ordering that Arius should now be 
received in communion by the Church at Constanti- 
nople, the capital of the empire. This caused its 
holy patriarch, St. Alexander, to protest against his 
reception as an unholy intrusion. 

Arianism now appeared in the ascendant, with 
its author about to be honored in the principal city 
of the empire. But alas for human calculations ! 
The reception never took place. The sudden and 
horrible death of the heresiarch prevented it. No 
eye witnessed the tragedy, but a pool of blood sur- 
rounding his corpse, with the entrails protruding, 
suggested the work of despair. 

Though its author was dead, Arianism lived, 
manifesting signs of vigorous vitality. Some of 
the successors of Constantine proved themselves its 
zealous and powerful protectors. 

Great vicissitudes brightened or darkened the 
path of the Catholics or Arians, according as the 
reigning emperor favored the one or the other. An 
unholy scheme had been formed by the leaders of 
the heresy. They designed to expel all Catholic 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


77 


bishops from their sees and fill their places with 
Arian prelates. The Arian emperor, Constantius, 
gave the aid of imperial power to the project. 

Few Arians labored more strenuously than he 
for the subversion of Catholicity and success of 
Arianism. Catholic bishops were banished for their 
firmness in the true faith, and Arians installed in 
their places over unwilling flocks. Thus Arianism 
became triumphant. It domineered everywhere. 
It controlled in Church and state. In its triumph, 
however, its weakness soon manifested it to be of 
human origin, and not divine. 

A church without a divinely appointed head 
cannot long exist. Dissensions completely rent it. 
Some were, for approaching in belief more closely 
to Catholic doctrine, denominated semi-Arians, 
whilst with others the angle of divergence became 
greater or less from Arianism, according to the 
views of its sectional leaders. 

At length a desire of unanimity appeared. Many 
distinguished Catholic bishops labored effectually in 
withdrawing their erring brethren from Arianism, 
or in forcing them from their wrongly acquired 
positions. The imperial arm being withdrawn from 
its support, it gave evident signs of decadence. 

Theodosius the Great, desirous of peace to the 
church and the empire, gave Arianism its death- 
blow. Its adherents were ordered to restore all 
churches to their rightful owners — the Catholic 
prelates. Arian assemblies were forbidden in the 


78 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


capital, and, finally, all were required to profess 
the Catholic faith. Thus ended, as a menacing 
power, though existing for a considerable time 
afterwards, the most formidable and dangerous 
heresy the Church has experienced. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Government Consolidation of the Church. 

Tp VERY community, every social body must have 
a head, otherwise the objects of the union of 
its members would be unattained. 

Neither peace nor order would reign, neither the 
welfare of the individual nor that of the com- 
munity, neither protection from enemies within, 
nor from those without. All would be in disorder, 
all in confusion. The intelligence and knowledge 
of a community enable it to perceive the necessity 
for committing its general welfare into the care of 
one supreme ruler. 

The history of nations and communities, of men 
in all ages, attest the necessity and wisdom of hav- 
ing a supreme ruler. 

The Church of Christ, though of divine institu- 
tion, yet is a vast community, a social body, and, 
therefore, like other societies, it requires for its 
government one supreme, visible ruler, otherwise 
for its preservation and the attainment of the 
object, for which it was instituted, a theocracy 
would be required. But the communications of 
the Deity with man, under a sensible form, for the 

79 


80 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


ruling of a community has been vouchsafed to 
nobody, except to the Jews, for a short period in 
that people’s national existence. 

If Christ did not promise divine direction to 
His Church in a visible manner, He did, however, 
promise to be with her to the end of the world. 
Matt., xxvnr, 20, and that the Holy Ghost would 
teach her all truth and abide with her forever {John, 
xiy, 16). But, that Christ intended and appointed 
temporal government for His Church, cannot reason- 
ably be doubted. Excelling all men by the union 
of the divinity with His humanity, He must be 
acknowledged the most perfect organizer that can 
be conceived. Hence, the Church which He founded 
could not be deficient of any principle deemed essen- 
tial, not only by the learned and wise for the welfare 
and continuance of any society, but also by those of 
average knowledge and intelligence. Therefore, did 
He inaugurate the chief magisterial office in His 
Church by appointing St. Peter its first ruler. Such 
is evidently the import of His words, addressed to 
that disciple, viz. : “ Feed My lambs : Feed My 
sheep {Jn., ch. 21, v. 15-17). Hence, the promi- 
nence of St. Peter in important deliberations or 
meetings of the Apostles. 

The condition of the Church, in the first three 
centuries of its existence, rendered it very difficult 
to exercise the supreme pastoral Authority effec- 
tively for the restoration of peace and religious 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


81 


harmony in the various parts of Christendom, when 
disturbed by doctrinal innovators from within. 

The slowness of travel, and the consequent tardi- 
ness of communication between the head and the 
subordinate rulers of the Church, afforded to the 
propagators of new opinions the opportunity of 
doing much injury among the Christians, suscepti- 
ble of new impressions, without the faculty to dis- 
criminate between true and false teachers. 

The stormy times of the persecutions of the 
Christians, under infidel emperors, caused a still 
greater impediment to the regulation and direction 
of churches situated far from Rome. 

In those days, when the popes had to perform 
the duties of their exalted office in concealment, 
through fear of the sword, or tortures by those who 
thirsted for their blood, it would be too hazard- 
ous to hold public council to check the spreading 
evil, and punish effectively by excommunication or 
censure the refractory members of the Church. 
Hence, in this condition, a latitude for the exercise 
of authority, in their respective jurisdictions, neces- 
sarily accompanied the investiture of prelates, with 
the episcopal or patriarchal dignity. Yet, even 
in the perilous times of fhe early persecutions, 
more than sufficient evidence exists in the appeal 
to Rome, by contestants in ecclesiastical disputes, to 
convince us of the Roman Church being acknowl- 
edged superior to all others, and the Pope the 
supreme Judge of the Universal Church. A few 


82 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


cases may be mentioned in verification of this 
assertion. 

Polycarp, in the second century, the most reverend 
and authoritative in the eastern church, consecrated 
bishop by St. John the Apostle and placed by the 
Apostle over the Church at Smyrna, referred to Pope 
Anicetus for a decision regarding questions concern- 
ing the paschal date. Conforming in word and 
practice to the custom at Rome and in the west, he 
was the means of bringing back many of the faith- 
ful who had been deceived by the persuasion of 
Marcion and Valentinus. 

The action of the universal Church leading to the 
condemnation of the first great heresy — that of 
Arius in the council of Nice — renders conspicuous 
the supreme authority of the Roman See. Over 
this, the first (Ecumenical Council, presided the 
legates of Pope St. Sylvester I., viz. : Osius, bishop 
of Cordova, and the priests Vitus and Vincentius. 
This plainly shows the established acknowledgment 
of the supremacy of the pope by the episcopacy, for 
there were no complaints of it being a usurpation, 
nor did any other prelate advance a claim of rival 
precedence. 

When Arianism, through its condemnation by 
the council, seemed to die away and lose its vitality, 
it was afterwards revived by its crafty author and 
his friends; having gained the favor of Constantine, 
it directed its principal assault against Athanasius 
its most able opponent. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 83 

This brilliant luminary of the Church, who has 
given us that clear and comprehensive compendium 
of Catholic faith in the creed which bears his name, 
could hardly hope to escape the storm of the Arian 
clouds gathering thick in the east and fulminating 
with the imperial power. Alexandria may be called 
the citadel of Catholicity in the east. Its learned 
and beloved patriarch, Athanasius, presented a gall- 
ing and invincible foe to the heresy. The occupants 
of other sees might be gained over by deception, 
persuasion or the fear of imperial displeasure, but the 
patriarch of Alexandria was known to be impreg- 
nable to all advances; no sophistry could ensnare 
him, no bribery or promise could entice him, no 
imperial disfavor could make him swerve from the 
path of conscientious duty. In the reign of Con- 
stantine, having incurred the imperial displeasure 
by refusing to enter into communion with Arius, he 
was sent into banishment like several other Catholic 
prelates who refused to be tainted with heresy. 

By Constantine II. and Constans the banished 
prelates were recalled and restored to their sees, but 
Arianism had gathered strength and raised a storm 
against the imperial reaction. Athanasius was com- 
pelled again to separate himself from his flock, and 
the Arians having invaded his patriarchate, taking 
forcible possession of the Catholic Churches, in- 
stalled one of their number, Pistus by name, as 
bishop of Alexandria. Subsequently, A. D. 341, 
the Arians held a synod at Antioch, where Athana- 


84 


GUIDE TO TEUE EELIGION. 


siiis, whom they had already compelled to abandon 
his see, was formally deposed from the patriarchate 
and Gregory, an Arian, was consecrated to occupy 
the coveted see. 

Athanasius finally turned to Rome, appealing to 
the Pope, as the ruler of Christendom, to impart 
justice to the wronged and restore order and peace 
to the eastern portion of the Church. He was not 
the only applicant to the successor of Peter for 
redress. Several other prelates, notably Paul of 
Constantinople, Lucius of Adrianople, and Marcel- 
lus of Ancyra, besought the Pope to use his supreme 
pastoral authority and restore the invaded sees to 
their rightful occupants. 

The heart of Pope St. Julius was affected at the 
sad state of the eastern portion of the Christian fold. 
He caused the charges for deposition made against 
the appealing bishops to be examined by a synod 
held at Rome for that purpose. The charges being 
found false and groundless, Julius gave judgment 
in favor of Athanasius and the other bishops de- 
spoiled of their sees, and at the same time condemned 
their self-constituted judges of the Arian Synod, 
held at Antioch, as abettors of heresy. The Arians, 
however, showed no signs of yielding, but held 
tenaciously to the usurped bishoprics. With the 
hope of making a favorable impression by an im- 
posing display and to strengthen their position, 
they held a Council at Philippopolis, where they 
renewed their hostility to St. Athanasius, repeating 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


85 


the sentence of deposition which their Arian Synod 
of Antioch had pronounced against him. 

The influence which this display of Arian strength 
might produce on those whose support would be 
most welcome as well as valuable, was more than 
counteracted by the assembling of a council of 
western Catholic bishops at Sardica, A. D. 343 
and 344. This council reiterated the sentence con- 
demning the Arians previously pronounced by Pope 
Julius at the Roman Synod. As the council was 
sanctioned and its decree confirmed by the Pope, 
the emperors willingly gave their support to it, not 
merely for the peace of the Church, but for that of 
the empire also. The Arian intruders were com- 
pelled to retreat from the usurped sees, which were 
restored to their Catholic incumbents. Thus his 
loving and beloved flock had the happiness to be 
again united with the Alexandrian patriarch, the 
saintly and illustrious Athanasius. 

These are but a few of the instances showing the 
acknowledgment by the eastern division of the 
Church as well as the western that the Pope was 
regarded in the early ages of the Church, as in later 
times, the chief pastor of the Christian fold. 

There is a tendency in Christian denominations 
outside of the Catholic Church to characterize as an 
assumption the claim or practice of supreme juris- 
diction over the universal Church. Besides the 
principle that no social, religious or any other 
species of community can exist without a head, it is 


86 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


evident from the instances given above that the 
chief pastoral control of Christ’s Church on earth 
is no modern assumption by the occupants of the 
Roman See, but an inherited right of the successor 
of St. Peter, whom Christ appointed the first chief 
pastor. 

As officers entrusted with a separate command, 
whose forces operate in distant parts of the theatre 
of a great campaign, enjoy the exercise of a less 
limited authority, than when in close proximity 
to the commander-in-chief, but, yet operating with 
unity of purpose, having the same final object in 
view, the victory of the whole army, so may the 
state of the Church be regarded in the first three 
centuries of its existence. To the bishops, scattered 
in various countries, and far from Rome, were 
ascribed discretionary powers in the spheres of their 
jurisdiction. Yet each knew that he had a superior, 
the chief pastor ; that he had to labor for the good 
of the flock committed to him, and thereby the 
good of Christ’s Church in general. 

In those times of violent persecution, by the pagan 
emperors, many difficulties attended a recourse to 
the Pope, and the public exercise of his supreme 
authority might be truly deemed a hazardous per- 
formance. Naturally, in such a state of dispersion 
of the bishops, from the ruler of the Universal 
Church, disputes would sometimes arise on religious 
subjects, contentions and dissensions would banish 
peace from some portion of the fold, as happened 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


87 


so often in the eastern division in times of violent 
commotion. Unless there be a supreme tribunal 
to decide upon disputed religious questions, the 
maintenance of peace and order would be hopeless 
in the disturbed quarter; for, where all the pre- 
lates are alike in authority, or nearly so, there is’ 
room for jealousy, for intrigue, for the practice of 
artifice and ingenious persuasion by the principals 
in the subject of dispute, as actually happened 
among the members of the episcopacy during the 
Arian heresy. 

The triumph of Christianity over paganism in- 
augurated an era of both comparative peace and 
consolidation. The peace, however, should be 
understood in relation to those outside of the 
Church, for otherwise it could scarcely be applied 
to the state of the Church in the fourth century, 
when warring and distracted with heresy. Con- 
solidation came as the result of organization, 
whereby the episcopal pastors of distant flocks were 
brought into closer communion with the head of 
the Church. To effect this in the West, which 
comprised, by far, the greatest portion of the Chris- 
tian fold, no great efforts were required. 

From the establishment of Christianity in the 
western countries of Europe, its members regarded 
with filial devotion the occupant of the Roman 
See : they received with veneration the communi- 
cations emanating from him, as from the divinely 
appointed shepherd over the entire flock of Christ. 


88 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Consequently the work of bringing them into closer 
external relations with the Pope met with no seri- 
ous impediment. 

The disposition in the east cannot be character- 
ized as similarly commendatory. There a certain 
coldness, not to say indifference, manifested itself 
for affairs of the western division of the Church. 

The little interference by the Pope, with the 
government, of their flocks, may have fostered in 
some a spirit of wished-for irresponsibility to the 
chief pastor. Yet, notwithstanding the signs of 
ambitions, together with the desire of precedence, 
which characterized the conduct of some, no one 
preferred rival claims to the office of supreme ruler 
of the whole Church, thus acknowledging the indis- 
putable position of the Roman Pontiff. 

The worst enemy of Catholicity, since the time 
of pagan emperors, was the Arian emperor, Con- 
stantius, who used both physical power and artifice 
to supplant Catholic faith by Arian heresy. For 
a time the siren of fortune smiled upon the imperial 
efforts, and, no doubt, enticed him on with the hope 
of complete victory which, to all appearances, was 
within his grasp. He began the campaign by an 
attack on St. Athanasius, the champion of Catho- 
licity in the east, and dreaded by all Arians. 

An assembly of bishops at Arles reluctantly, but 
servilely, complied with the emperor’s desire in 
pronouncing the condemnation and deposition of 
Athanasius. Pope Liberius, however, refused to 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 89 

sign the unjust decree, and convoked a council at 
Milan to reverse the sentence of that of Arles. Not 
to be frustrated in the accomplishment of his most 
cherished project, Constantius appeared before the 
council as principal accuser of Athanasius. He 
failed, however, to impress the bishops with an 
impression of the justice of his cause. 

Bribery and artifice, so characteristic of the 
environs of the palace at Constantinople, then and 
for centuries afterwards, were summoned to the aid 
of the imperial arms. They also failed, finding no 
congenial soil in the minds of the bishops. Finally, 
with a last, forlorn hope, Constantius, resolving to 
try the effect of menace, entered the council with 
drawn sword and ordered the prelates to sign the 
sentence condemning Athanasius. Thus intimi- 
dated, the bishops had the weakness to yield against 
their conscience to the tyrant’s threat. Only three, 
the occupant of the See of Milan and the two papal 
legates, had the courage to refuse their signatures. 
But the work of a council requires the approval of 
the Pope. Constantius, therefore, caused the docu- 
ment bearing the bishops’ signatures to be taken to 
Pope Liberius for his signature also. But the 
Pontiff was indignant at the effrontery of such a 
request and refused. For this opposition to the 
imperial will, the fearless Pope was sent into banish- 
ment as well as those who had courageously refused 
to sign the document. 


90 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Arianism was now in the ascendant. The principal 
sees, now in Christendom, were occupied by Arians. 

To consummate its victory, as well as the apparent 
overthrow of Catholicity, Felix, declared by some to 
be of sound Catholic faith, by others an Arian, was 
made pope, and took the place of Liberius at Rome. 
This triumph of Arianism, won by the sword, was 
of short duration. 

Like all heresies, it soon became the prey of dis- 
sensions. In vain did the emperor endeavor to 
restore union to its diverging factions. At his 
death, in A. D. 361, Julian the Apostate, by recall- 
ing the Catholic bishops from exile and placing 
them near the Arians, who had been intruded into 
their bishoprics, hoped to embroil them, and so 
contribute to the destruction of Christianity, which 
he desired. 

Some of the distinguished Catholic bishops, per- 
ceiving his evil design, frustrated it by pursuing a 
course of charity toward their erring brethren. By 
this means, and the exercise of a prudence, dictated 
by sound wisdom, many were brought back to the 
profession of the Catholic faith. 

After experiencing many vicissitudes, Arianism 
found another and ardent, as well as unscrupulous, 
supporter in the Emperor Valens. The persecu- 
tion, which the Church suffered under him, failed 
in its object, like all others. 

The vitality of Arianism had been mortally 
assailed by the dissensions which tore it asunder. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


91 


To restore unity, vigor and stability to it, was 
beyond human power. It was gradually approach- 
ing extinction, when a new emperor, unfavorable 
to it, accelerated its death. 

Theodosius, desirous of the general welfare of 
Christianity, as well as that of the empire, saw that 
this could not be attained, as long as a heresy was 
sustained, contrary to the doctrine received from 
the apostolic times, opposed to scriptural teaching 
and to pious sentiments of all devout Christians. 
For the sake of peace, therefore, and the good of 
Christianity, he determined to put an end to it in 
the manner related in the last chapter. 

Arius conceived and first taught the heresy. It 
chiefly depended for success on the secular power. 
Constantius was its warmest and most powerful 
supporter. When the imperial power was with- 
drawn, it collapsed, though lingering in some coun- 
tries for a considerable time afterwards. 

If Constantius had applied himself with as much 
zeal to the discharge of the ordinary duties of a 
good ruler, for the benefit of the nations under his 
sway, instead of acting a principal’s part in religious 
strife, how much more profitable for himself and 
his subjects, he would have used the time of his 
reign. He would, thus acting, gain the affections 
of the peoples under him, merit the esteem and 
tributes of honor from posterity, afford a noble 
example to other rulers, both contemporaneous and 
those in after ages, not to speak of the reward of the 


92 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


just Judge to the deserving temporal ruler, instead 
of meddling with matters that did not belong to his 
office, afflicting Christians with grief and punish- 
ment for non-compliance with his mandates of 
religious dictation, and so justly deserving from 
those of his own time and from posterity the hate- 
ful name of a religious tyrant. 

In the vacillation of some of the bishops under 
the threats of Constantius, the noble conduct and 
undaunted courage of Christ’s vicar relieves the sad 
ecclesiastical picture. Pope Liberius could not be 
gained by the astute Constantius. Imperial pleasure, 
displeasure or menace failed to move him. Faith- 
fully did he guard the flock committed to his care, 
faithfully did he discharge the duties of the highest 
office filled by man. 

When the strife of Arianism had ceased an era of 
peace and prosperity appeared to dawn upon the 
Church. In all parts of Christendom was felt the 
necessity of a closer union with the head of the 
Church. In the times of persecution, though the 
supremacy of the Pope was admitted on all sides, 
his authority was seldom exercised in places far 
from Rome. Hence the prelates presiding in such 
places were expected to act in cases of gravity with 
deliberation, great prudence and Christian charity. 
But toward the close of the fourth century the 
obstacles to the free exercise of the Pope’s authority 
had been mostly removed. Patriarchs, primates 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


93 


and other prelates were brought into closer relations 
with the head of the Church. 

The consolidation of the spiritual edifice after 
surmounting so many trials, with the vicar of Christ 
directing, afforded universal conviction of its divine 
origin, and hence absolute confidence in its guidance 
to salvation. 

The great mission of the Church had, both from 
within and without her fold, been greatly impeded. 
This is the conversion of the nations of the earth 
to Christianity ; the path to these was now con- 
siderably cleared of obstacles, and she turned with 
ardor to the accomplishment of her great mission. 
In its prosecution she could implicitly rely upon 
the good will of a favorable Catholic emperor and 
the filial cooperation of her zealous sons. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Church Fulfilling her Mission. 

u A S the Father hath sent Me, I also send you” 
( Jn.j ch. 20, v. 21). “ Going, therefore, 

teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you ; and behold, I am with you 
all days, even to the consummation of the world” 
(Matt., ch. 28, v. 19-20). Such was the commis- 
sion given by the Redeemer of men to His eleven 
Apostles before He ascended into heaven ; such the 
mightiest mission ever intrusted to men to accom- 
plish. How faithfully and successfully the Apostles 
and their co-laborers and successors executed this 
great commission in the first three centuries of the 
existence of the Church, though encountering the 
worst of obstacles, the deadly hostility of the ruling 
element in the greatest of empires that have ever 
existed, history attests. In wonder and amazement 
the mind contemplates the prodigious growth in that 
period of the little timid body of believers, within 
the limits of Jerusalem, at the time of the descent of 
the Holy Ghost. Not long after that event the towns 
94 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


95 


and cities of Judea could not contain the ever-in- 
creasing additions to the numbers of the new religion. 

Christians in numerous bodies were found in 
the principal countries of the empire. They flour- 
ished in the islands of Greece, in the other islands 
of the Mediteranean. They abounded in Spain and 
North Africa, and also in Gaul. Italy was being 
rapidly Christianized. They swarmed in Rome, 
the capital of the empire, where the Prince of the 
Apostles, St. Peter, founding his see, made it also 
the capital of Christendom. 

Pagan Rome rose in all its armor against the 
audacious invader of the realm, conquered by the 
mistress of the world. All her physical assaults 
were found unavailing to check the progress of the 
spiritual foe. Province after province became per- 
meated with the new and strange doctrine. The 
proud capital herself, notwithstanding the holocausts 
and lesser sacrifices of Christians by her devoted 
sons to her inattentive deities came, at length, 
tremulously to acknowledge submission to her ami- 
able conqueror. 

The standard of the father of the Gods had to 
vacate its enthronement for that of the Saviour of 
the World. The cross vanquishing the imperial 
eagle, surmounted the city of the Tarquins, the 
Republic and the Caesars. This in time of persecu- 
tion and attempted extermination. What might be 
expected of the Christian religion in time of com- 
parative peace when the power of victory accom- 


96 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


panied her, when valiant lovers tendered their 
obsequient service? Alas! the lover of the cross 
may hang his head in shame. Scores, if not 
hundreds, of bishops were required in Northern 
Africa in those days of persecution to superintend 
the spiritual affairs of the Christians of that region. 
How many are there now ? 

It is reasonably credible and generally admitted 
that Asia furnished many adherents to the Christian 
religion in the time of the Apostles. The successful 
labors of St. Thomas in that quarter of the world 
are unquestioned. 

Where, now, is the productive result of that 
Apostle’s strenuous efforts, and those of his im- 
mediate successors? If we except the Europeans 
and their descendants, who have established their 
homes in that continent, how many of the hundreds 
of millions of human beings are Christians? Very 
few. How many of the inhabitants of North and 
South America, of Australia, would be Christians if 
intrepid explorers had not discovered and traversed 
them? Yet the commission to the Apostles and 
their successors is : “ Going, therefore, teach ye all 
nations,” etc. But it must be admitted that the 
teachers of the Church had many difficulties to con- 
tend against. Outside of the Roman empire, which 
it conquered, the Church engaged in the hazardous 
work of converting the barbarous and semi-barba- 
rous nations to her faith. Long-established usages 
had to be treated with great prudence, superstitions 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


97 


to be overcome. The hostility of the privileged 
classes, particularly that of the religious one, could 
not be unexpected, for to them the successful assault 
of Christianity meant either conversion or a pre- 
carious existence. In few words the establishing 
of Christianity in each barbarous or half-civilized 
nation, either outside or slightly connected with the 
Roman empire, might be regarded as the minia- 
ture of the great struggle of the Christian Church 
with pagan Rome. There were some exceptions to 
national hostility to the preaching of Christianity 
to the inhabitants of a country for establishing the 
Church among them. Some received it not merely 
with respect, but with reverence and immediate 
acceptance of its doctrine for the attainment of that 
future state of glory which, for the first time, it 
announced to them. 

Perhaps the inhabitants of Ireland accorded the 
announcement of the Gospel of Christ the most 
cordial reception which it received from the nations 
coming into the fold. England also gave it an 
encouraging introduction. 

The sowing of the seed of faith in new fields, 
where the light of the Gospel had not yet pene- 
trated, as it was the great duty assigned to her by 
her divine Founder, so it was the work which the 
Church kept constantly in view. In its accomplish- 
ment, however, she met many impediments. These 
may be truly said to have arisen not solely or princi- 
pally from without, but mostly from within her fold. 
7 


98 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

In the eastern portion especially, where the 
Greek element predominated, the periodical luxu- 
riant growth of cockle in the vineyard of the Lord 
engrossed the strenuous efforts of the husbandman, 
so that zeal for missionary labors in that quarter, 
for the conversion of the densely peopled countries 
of Asia, viz , India, China, etc., almost seemed a 
thing of the past. In the west existed a striking 
contrast. There that zeal characteristic of Apostolic 
times continued to show itself in all grades of the 
Church, from the Pontiff in Peter’s chair to the 
lowest in the clerical element. There the missionary 
was ever ready at his superior’s order to bear the 
light of faith to those distant lands immersed in the 
darkness of infidelity and idolatry. Nor did the 
prospect of the martyr’s crown check his advance 
nor cool his ardent zeal for the salvation of souls. 
Many rather coveted the glorious crown by in- 
trepidly prosecuting their precious labors in the face 
of threats and many dangers. 

Spain and Gaul, like Italy, had received the 
Christian faith in the first century. In the course of 
time, by its rapid advance, Christianity supplanted 
the false religions hitherto prevailing there, so that 
these nations enjoyed the benefits and distinction of 
being Christianized long before the other nations 
of Europe. Beyond these idolatry still held its 
debasing sway. To the east and to the north lay 
nations inviting zealous missionaries to spiritual 
conquest. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


99 


The troubles of the Church, inflicted by persecu- 
tions from without and by heresies from within, 
had greatly retarded the work of promulgating 
effectively the Gospel of Christ to these nations, but 
when she entered upon a time of comparative peace, 
it was in her power to give that attention long 
wished by her to the fulfilment of her mission — the 
enlightenment of those who sit in darkness, and to 
affording them the means of acquiring everlasting 
happiness. 

The most remarkable, also the most important, 
spiritual conquest of the Church in the fifth century, 
was the conversion of the Irish nation. The manner 
of its coming to the light of faith and the paucity 
of means in the work of conversion, give to the 
labors of St. Patrick, its Apostle, a character little, 
if anything, short of the miraculous. History testi- 
fies to the spontaneous reception which the Irish 
gave to the preaching of the Christian faith among 
them by this illustrious servant of God. St. Patrick 
had the happiness to bring, aided in his labors by 
some of the converts, the nation under the amiable 
yoke of Christ. Ireland, in respect to its instanta- 
neous conversion to the Christian faith, occupies 
a unique position among the nations that have 
embraced Christianity. But if their spontaneous 
acceptance of Catholic faith impresses the mind with 
astonishment, not less does admiration affect it at 
the extraordinary tenacity with which they clung to 
it in the most trying circumstances during times of 


100 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


direful persecutions. The reader may find this 
verified in the historical narrative of their condition 
in the sixteenth and subsequent centuries, when their 
fidelity to their faith experienced a crucial test. 

Another great conquest by the Church was the 
conversion of the English nation, which began 
toward the end of the sixth century. To St. Austin 
is given the merit and distinction of being the first 
to bring a considerable portion of the English into 
the Catholic fold. His success was partial. He 
was sent by Pope St. Gregory I., both being monks 
of the same order, the Benedictine, the oldest of 
religious orders established in the west. Austin 
and the forty monks of his order who accompanied 
him, when in 597 they arrived in Kent, met a 
favorable reception from Ethelbert, its King, one 
of the seven ruling the English Heptarchy. Long 
before this event, and before the arrival of St. 
Patrick in Ireland, missionaries had visited these 
countries, but little success attended their efforts. 
Austin confined his labors to Kent and Essex, whose 
kings embracing the Christian faith, their example 
was soon followed by their subjects. Austin did 
not live to see the conversion of a great portion of 
the island, his death occurring in 605. 

At the end of the seventh century, however, nearly 
all of the people were included in the Catholic fold, 
Sussex being the last to enter, receiving the faith in 
709. But the work of conversion was not entirely 
left or due to the efforts of St. Austin and his monks. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


101 


A considerable portion of the inhabitants owed their 
conversion to the labors of the Irish monks who had 
been invited by Oswald, King of Northumbria, for 
that purpose from the island of Iona, which had 
already begun to spread its fame as a seat of piety 
and learning. From this sanctuary went forth 
zealous missionaries to Caledonia, or North Britain, 
to conquer by the cross the fierce inhabitants of 
that region. Most gratifying results attended their 
labors. 

The whole island of Britain being converted to 
the Catholic faith soon began to vie in the sanctified 
lives of its people with the sister isle, Ireland, which 
had already, in the seventh and eighth centuries, 
evinced her missionary spirit by sending several of 
her apostolic sons to different parts of the continent 
of Europe to diffuse the light of faith to those still 
in spiritual darkness dwelling there. Britain’s sons 
also looked abroad for fields of labor wherein to 
exercise their zeal for their divine Master. 

There were yet vast fields in northeastern Europe 
whose warlike, idolatrous people offered most worthy 
objects for missionary enterprises. Of those who 
undertook the spiritual conquest of these people, the 
most illustrious of the missionaries who went from 
Britain and Ireland to this new field of labor, was 
the Anglo-Saxon priest Winifrid, or Boniface. His 
ardent zeal for souls impelled him to visit Rome in 
order to obtain the Pope’s authority for preaching 
the Gospel and spreading the faith among the 


102 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


various tribes of the Germans. In this great work 
his success surpassed expectation. The barbarians 
flocked around him to hear the new doctrine with 
the result that idolatry was soon abandoned for the 
Christian worship of the true God. 

The wonderful progress of Christianity under 
Boniface and his assistants in the conversion of the 
Germans, deserved from Rome the authorization 
of the establishment of the hierarchy. Boniface, 
desirous of the continued spiritual prosperity of the 
peoples he had converted to the Lord, made a visit 
to Rome to see the Pontiff. Pope Gregory III., 
learning the unusual acceptance of the Catholic 
faith by the Germans, felt no reluctance to grant 
the establishment of the hierarchy in the country 
whose inhabitants had successfully resisted the 
Roman legions of former times. This truly apos- 
tolic man had yet another gem to add to his crown 
of glory, that of martyrdom. Boniface seeing the 
pacific state of the tribes he had been instrumental 
in bringing into the fold of Christ, resolved to 
fulfill a vow which he had made many years pre- 
vious to the establishment of the hierarchy in the 
country of the peoples he had gained to Christ. 

The Frisians were to the north ; to these he 
determined to carry the light of faith notwith- 
standing the many dangers to be encountered in 
laboring for this savage people. Thus in his old 
age, for he was then seventy-five years old, Boni- 
face did not hesitate to undertake the conversion of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


103 


another people, and thereby make another addition 
to the Kingdom of his Saviour. He dreaded not 
the prospect of martyrdom. He received it joy- 
fully in 755; but, no doubt, the luxuriant crop of 
the future harvest of souls springing from the 
martyr’s blood, cheered his last earthly moments 
before his soul’s flight to its heavenly home. 

By the fruitful apostolic labors of Boniface the 
spiritual rule of the Church was greatly extended, 
with the probability that the few remaining barba- 
rous tribes or nations inhabiting the north and 
eastern portions of Europe would speedily find their 
way into her fold. 

With the establishment of Catholicity among the 
German tribes and other nations not yet amenable 
to the laws of civilization by an entire severance 
from the tenacious grasp of barbarism, an onerous 
duty developed upon the local rulers and teachers 
of the Church. With the acceptance of the Catholic 
faith there came the necessity of a reformation of 
morals, the abandonment of customs opposed to 
the spirit of Christianity. Usages of immemorial 
practice not essentially injurious to it, yet of a 
tendency to impair its purity, cannot be prudently 
assailed with holy indignation aroused by religious 
zeal, but must be passively borne till they become 
supplanted by others more in harmony with Chris- 
tian life. 

As the state of civilization transcends that of 
barbarism, so the morals of barbarians are much 


104 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


beneath those practised by civilized people. To 
effect a change from the lower to the higher state 
required time, prudence and patience in the reforma- 
tion of character, in ages of slow progress when the 
inventions and appliances of modern times were 
unknown. Upon the Church devolved the duty to 
convert the nations not only from false belief and 
heathenish worship, but also to convert them from 
systems of corrupting and debasing morals to a 
sound Christian morality. This office she had 
already successfully discharged towards the fierce, 
passionate hordes who had made irruptions at 
different times into the Roman Empire, and finally 
overthrew it in A. D. 476. 

To such barbarians might alone seemed the only 
principle of authority, and the rule of the most 
powerful to be honored and obeyed. When the 
seed of Christian faith engendered fruit in their 
minds, a wonderful transformation took place in 
their character. They learned to discriminate be- 
tween power exercised according to justice, and 
power directed by passion or used for personal 
aggrandisement or unworthy objects. They learned 
also that the source of supreme power existed in 
Heaven, that God ruled the world. They became 
convinced that the justifiable acquisition of goods 
as well as their moderate use was preferable to 
rapacity and the enjoyment of ill-gotten goods. 
The teachings of the Church made known to them 
that love for one’s neighbor excells in its amiable 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 105 

fruits, both in the life on earth as well as in the 
future state, the destructive passion of hatred. Their 
Christian faith demanded also of them humane treat- 
ment of prisoners and the vanquished in all justi- 
fiable wars. To effect these changes in man's 
character required more than human means. The 
Church alone was able to accomplish the trans- 
formation of character. The duty of civilizing the 
nations of the earth was implied in the great com- 
mission she had received from her divine Founder. 
Wherever she erected the sign of man's redemption, 
there her humanizing, civilizing influence diffused 
itself in all directions like the rays of the sun. She 
fostered learning by encouraging the erection of 
local schools in which she was generously aided by 
the cooperation of some of her royal sons. Among 
these patrons of learning Charlemagne on the Conti- 
nent and Alfred, of England, deserve prominence. 
This primary effort to disseminate knowledge gave 
an impetus to the desire for mental ' culture, and 
foreshadowed the great institutions called national 
universities whose establishment the Church pro- 
moted in later times for the higher education of 
all classes. These institutions still remain attended 
annually by thousands of students mentally equip- 
ping themselves for success in the various professions 
they have chosen for their earthly career. They 
stand also as monuments to the zeal of the Catholic 
Church for affording the means of mental develop- 
ment, of encouragement to the study of the most 


106 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


profound and abstruse subjects in the various de- 
partments of science and art. The nations which 
possess these great and ancient institutions of 
learning, may be justly proud of their priceless 
treasures. 

In the ninth century almost all Europe lay within 
the spiritual rule of the Catholic Church. By the 
indefatigable labors of her missionary sons, the 
nations were converted and brought into her fold. 
By her directive policy they pursued their temporal 
and spiritual welfare. Their rough, barbaric char- 
acter received the transforming touch of Christian 
refinement, influencing them to a higher civilization. 
The face of Europe seemed changed. False religions 
had disappeared. The towering cross evidenced the 
triumph of Christianity everywhere. The success 
of the Church in this quarter of the world had been 
most gratifying ; her prospect into the future most 
brilliant. 

But what results attended her labors in other 
quarters of the world for the commission she re- 
ceived from her founder — the teaching of all nations? 
Two causes may be stated for impeding the con- 
version of the rest of the known world. These 
form the subjects of the two following chapters. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Greek Schism. 

HI HE Greek element in the Christian Church 
attracts notice from Apostolic times. Many 
causes may be alleged for their drawing attention. 
In the first place the Grecian republics, preceding 
in civilization the other nations of Europe, though 
small in size, yet by their great superiority in the 
arts of war and peace, made themselves both feared 
and respected by the more numerically powerful 
nations. As a result from their excelling condition, 
their language appeared worthy of acquisition to 
many members of other nations, who, for many 
reasons, sought for knowledge in a closer study of 
the Grecian character. Not the least cause was the 
thirst of knowledge w hich the famous philosophic 
establishments of Greece promised to satisfy. The 
pleasing reasonings of Socrates’ elevating philoso- 
phy, could hardly fail to find admirers abroad as 
well as disciples at home. The great philosophic 
works of Plato and Aristotle would be eagerly 
sought by the learned of other nations besides those 
of Greece. Their political works offered most de- 
sirable literature to legislators and all who had 

107 


108 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


chosen statesmanship or politics for their career. 
Being for the most part close to the sea, or islanders, 
the advantages of commerce drew many to the 
occupation of international trading. The Greeks 
also founded colonies. By all these means the 
Greek language extended the sphere of its use. It 
became the language of the learned, and also the 
general medium, especially in the east, for effecting 
the transactions of commerce. Long after Greece 
succumbed to the conquering Macedonian their 
language survived, affording a general medium 
for social, commercial and international communi- 
cations. 

These remarks upon the language of Greece may 
help to explain the reason of Greek being so exten- 
sively used at the time of the establishment of 
Christianity. It was not neglected by the Jews, 
who ostensibly disregarded whatever savored of 
Gentilism. So popular and extensively spoken was 
it that the evangelists, though Hebrews, selected 
Greek as the medium to convey to the world the 
sacred writings of the Gospel. It may be easily 
understood that all those Christians who spoke 
Greek were not Greeks, but, yet on account of their 
language, were regarded by other nations professing 
Christianity as a distinctive people or element in 
the Christian Church. 

As the Greeks, when an independent nation, were 
noted for a characteristic propensity to disputation 
and discussion, so those of the eastern portion of the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


109 


Christian Church, denominated Greeks, appeared 
to have inherited or assumed this Hellenic feature. 
Some of them whilst accepting the Christian re- 
ligion, tried to change or modify some of its princi- 
ples, so as to bring it more extensively, if not 
entirely, within the sphere of reason. Hence the 
many heresies that arose in the eastern division of 
the Church. There is scarcely a mystery of Chris- 
tian faith that has not been assailed at some time by 
some restless, disturbing members of the Greek 
element in the Church. Even in the time of St. 
Paul symptoms of divergence from sound doctrine 
became so manifest as to draw from the Apostle the 
chastisement of bitter rebuke. These contentions 
among the Greeks produced their baleful effects 
upon the Christian religion in the east. It was 
hopeless to expect any extension of the Church on 
the greatest continent of the earth in such a deplor- 
able condition of its eastern division. Consequently, 
the conversion of the nations of Asia to Christianity 
was neglected. No missionary spirit was there. 
It had long ago taken its flight to the west, where 
it found willing laborers in the vineyard of the 
Lord, to fire for conquest with its breath. 

Another cause that directed commendable regard 
to the Greeks was the sanctity of some of their 
prelates, their intrepidity in the presence of many 
dangers in guarding the purity of Christian faith 
from the malign spirit of corruption. The sancti- 
fied lives of St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, St. Basil, 


110 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. 
Athanasius, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. John 
Chrysostom and many others, impart a redeeming 
feature to the general unpleasant character of the 
Greek division of the Church. 

Yet, with all their love of innovation, the Greeks 
continued till the eleventh century in their union 
with the rest of Christendom, recognizing the Pope 
as successor to St. Peter and ruler of the whole 
Church. More than one cause operated in effecting 
their separation from the main body initiated by 
Photius, an unscrupulous usurper of the Patriarchal 
See at Constantinople. The transference of the 
imperial seat of government from Rome to Con- 
stantinople by Constantine, tended to weaken the 
central influence exercised by the Pope over the 
whole of Christendom. 

It struck down Roman or Latin supremacy with 
a single blow. It gave the ascendancy in Church 
and State to those of the Grecian race, and all who 
spoke Greek as their native language. In fact, it 
created a new condition both unexpected and appar- 
ently without motive, and also unseemly because of 
the nationality of the author. It called forth a 
revival of all that was Greek to the detriment of 
whatever was Roman or Latin. The act does not 
indicate that Constantine entertained much love for 
Italy or its capital. Constantinople soon became a 
hotbed of intrigue, plots and crime. Many of the 
emperors of the Greek empire, which succeeded in 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Ill 


diminutive dimensions the great Roman empire, 
distinguished themselves more as religious tyrants 
than as aspirants to the glory of the warrior engaged 
in a just cause or the love of subjects grateful for 
beneficent rule. If a zealous patriarch distinguished 
for his attachment to the Roman See as the center 
of unity and a fearless reprover of unsound Chris- 
tian morality as St. John Chrysostom, the hostility 
of the Constantinopolitan populace or banishment 
was awarded for displeasure to the imperial court. 
Yet, all acknowledged, however reluctantly, the 
right of Rome to rule in religious matters all Chris- 
tendom. Hence, in the general or (Ecumenical 
Councils, the legates of the pope always presided 
over these august assemblies. But the long series 
of religious contentions, heresies, etc., had weakened 
respect for legitimate religious authority especially, 
and emphasized the antagonism of races between 
Latins and Greeks. 

The way was slowly but surely being prepared 
for throwing off the spiritual supremacy of Rome. 
The anti-Roman sentiment had to be aroused with 
prudence and nurtured with patience, in order that 
it might be productive of the desired result. The 
consent of the majority of the eastern or Greek 
bishops was deemed necessary to an authoritative 
declaration of any patriarchate having equal author- 
ity to the Roman See. Photius was the first to 
make the bold attempt. In one of these passionate 
outbursts of the mob, or of the emperor, that fre- 


112 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


quently occurred iu Constantinople, against the 
virtuous and saintly occupants of the patriarchate 
of Constantinople, Ignatius, patriarch in the reign 
of Michael III., was banished from his charge by 
that emperor in A. D. 858. Photius received the 
appointment to the office of the banished patriarch. 

All such appointments were subject to confirma- 
tion by the Pope. The audacity of Photius was 
not to be checked by the fear of a refusal. He 
applied to Rome for the necessary confirmation. 
Pope Nicholas I. refused his consent to the appoint- 
ment of the usurper, for Ignatius had neither been 
tried nor convicted by any authoritative ecclesiasti- 
cal court. Then Photius appeared in his true 
character — of opposition to the supremacy of the 
Roman See. He boldly declared that Rome should 
not dictate to Constantinople ; that it had no 
authority superior to that of the latter in religious 
questions. This previously unheard-of pretension 
by another see of equality with Rome, regarded 
as the mother of all Churches, astounded all 
Christendom. 

Though the ruling element in Church affairs in 
the east had not yet descended to such a degree of 
decadence and subservience to the imperial will as 
to support the claim of the usurper, yet his action 
sowed the seed of religious discord between the 
eastern and western divisions of the Church. 

Although Photius had not the slightest foundation 
to warrant success in his anti-Roman movement, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


113 


yet the subject was deemed sufficiently important to 
require the action of a council to decide upon it. 
He soon found his condition rather precarious in 
the city of Constantine. There, a political revolu- 
tion having taken place, its victorious party, being 
adverse to the religious agitator, forced him into 
exile. The Council convoked to restore peace and 
harmony at Constantinople is the eighth (Ecumeni- 
cal Council of the Church. Its members, mostly 
Greek, in A. D. 869, condemned Photius and his 
claim put forth for Constantinople assuming spiritual 
authority equal to that of Rome. Affirming the 
primacy of the Roman See, they proclaimed it 
supreme in Christendom. 

This decision of the council apparently settled the 
question, but the seed scattered by Photius was not 
killed. He still possessed friends at Constantinople 
and no little influence at the fickle imperial court. 
When Ignatius, the rightful patriarch, died, Pho- 
tius was recalled from banishment and installed in 
the patriarchal chair. This caused fresh commo- 
tions at Constantinople. Again he became the 
object of unpleasant attention, and falling into 
imperial disfavor, he was banished by Leo the 
philosopher. His life of many vicissitudes to him- 
self and injury to the unity of the Christian Church, 
closed unsuccessfully in exile in A. D. 891. By 
the council the unity of the Church was preserved ; 
by the death of the usurping agitator, the cause of 
trouble was removed. 

8 


114 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


To the lovers of the Church and all interested in 
her prosperity, the prospect into the future appeared 
most cheerful. Great prudence, however, had to be 
exercised by the Popes in approving the appoint- 
ments to the patriarchate of Constantinople. They 
exercised so great influence among the members of 
the eastern episcopacy, and being able adroitly to 
use effective persuasion on the emperor, their fidelity 
to Catholic principles should be clearly known be- 
fore their advancement to so high a position. 

The patriarchs in general were dutiful to Rome, 
some of them manifesting their zeal for the pros- 
perity of the entire Church, were not unworthy of 
their high office. 

But the current set in motion by Photius had, in 
the course of time, steadily extended its dimensions 
till, at length, it required but a fostering hand to 
give it such a width as to render it an impassable 
barrier between Rome and its Greek ecclesiasti- 
cal province. The hero of this religious feat was 
Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople in 
A. D. 1054. 

In time Photius found a worthy successor. The 
work of separating the eastern or Greek portion 
from the main body of the Church of Christ in- 
augurated by Photius, was thus consummated by 
the assent of the eastern bishops, whose predeces- 
sors, in a general council, had proclaimed the 
supremacy of the Roman See. This is known as 
the Greek Schism. This separative act marked the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


115 


complete decadence of sound Christian religion in 
the east. It also tended to the rapid disintegration 
of the Greek empire. 

A powerful enemy to Greek power had already 
wrenched many of the fairest provinces from Greek 
rule and menaced the rest. The martial Moham- 
medans could not be repelled by the etfeminate 
Greeks, more noted as participants in frequent 
squabbles at Constantinople, or prone to taking 
interest in religious questions savoring of heresy 
or schism, than willing or able to protect their 
property when invaded by the enemy. 

By their secession from the great body of Chris- 
tians, sympathy with them in their danger became 
greatly lessened if not wholly alienated. As might 
be expected they offered but a feeble resistance to 
the united forces of Mussulmans, who advanced to 
the gates of Constantinople. The strength of its 
ramparts preserved the shadow of an empire for 
centuries before the complete annihilation of the 
Greek power by the Mohammedans in the fifteenth 
century. From the time of the consummation of 
the schism to the capture of Constantinople by the 
Turks, the Greek Church partook of the varying 
fortunes of the Greek power. 

When Michael Paleologus fell in the breach 
defending his capital, the last remnant of the once 
expansive empire, the Greek Church fell also; for 
after the separation from Borne, it became a mere 
national church, and as such necessarily followed 


116 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the fortunes of the nation. It had not then much 
to lose, as the conquering Turk had long ago 
planted the standard of Islam in the rich provinces 
that had obeyed the turbulent rule of Constanti- 
nople. The option he offered to the conquered, 
hateful servitude or Islam, could hardly encourage 
the hope that the Greek Church would long survive 
the loss of its temporal support. Some remnants of 
it were, by their anti-Christian masters, permitted 
to exist under galling conditions. Many of the 
Greeks fled to foreign lands rather than live under 
the intolerable rule of their new masters. Some to 
the Latin or southern nations, more took a north- 
eastern course, where hospitality of the natives 
revived their drooping spirits. Another political 
star was then approaching the horizon. 

The great Russian empire had not yet attained 
to formation. The nucleus of the great power, 
however, even at that time, might be easily dis- 
cerned in the conglomeration of tribes and races 
that formed it. Many professed the Catholic faith, 
introduced among them by Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 
about the tenth century ; others favored the teach- 
ing of the Greek Church. The power itself wanted 
a religion to honor as a national Church. 

What more ready, more compliant, than the 
Greek Church. Thus the Greeks, dispersed by 
the Mohammedans, found an asylum, and not only 
an asylum, but friends and protectors to themselves 
and their religion, in the semi-barbarous people 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


117 


and their ruler in the north. They lost their main 
support and protector in the fall of the Greek 
emperor with his empire ; they found another less 
prominent, less ostentatious, but more solid, destined 
in the future to develop into one of the great powers 
of the world. 

The Greeks found plastic material in the half- 
civilized people to establish a national religion and 
to form the native character in harmony therewith. 
All other religions were rigidly excluded, so that 
the adherents to other religions who in the course 
of the extension of the empire were compelled to 
be its subjects, found themselves the objects of 
Greek orthodox hostility and frequent molestation. 

In its hopeless condition, then, after the capture 
of Constantinople by the Turks, the Greek Church 
found not only a friend but a powerful protector 
in the slowly yet steadily increasing autocratic 
power of Russia. 

Having thus become the national Church, its 
progress and vitality may be measured by the ex- 
tension and duration of the empire. Beyond this, 
however, it possesses but few adherents excepting 
those in the districts of Southern Europe, suffered 
by their conquerors, the Turks, to exist. 

Had it been the true Church of Christ, the Greeks 
would have long ago carried the truths of Chris- 
tianity into the vast regions of Asia, densely peopled 
by those living for ages in the darkness of infidelity 
and idolatry. They have been admirably situated 


118 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


for diffusing the light of Christianity to the be- 
nighted Asiatics, for they are the closest neighbors 
to them. But a severed branch cannot be expected 
to possess the vigor requisite for the bearing of 
fruit. Hence, when the Catholic Church, in the 
prosecution of her divine mission, has steadily per- 
severed in her efforts, notwithstanding the greatest 
difficulties and dangers, to reach the most distant 
parts of Asia, and extend to its almost countless 
inhabitants the religious benefits of Christianity, 
with gratifying results, we find the Greek Church 
almost unknown beyond the limits of the Russian 
and a portion of the Turkish empires. 

It is evident that the Greek Church is a mere 
national institution, devoid of those attributes per- 
taining to and distinguishing the true Church of 
Christ. Now its adherents are numerous and it 
presents an imposing appearance, being next to the 
Catholic Church in numerical strength. 

But it is easy to understand the cause of its 
growth as well as to perceive that nearly all of its 
followers and strength lie within the limits of one 
country, Russia. There it flourishes by the support 
of the secular power. But the Church of Christ 
needs not to be upheld by the sword. It may still 
further increase, but it will do so only in propor- 
tion to the expansion of the empire within whose 
boundaries it holds intolerant sway. This is but 
a feature of all national institutions, which soon 
evince signs of decay as soon as the power declines 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


119 


or altogether disappears from which they received 
their vitality. 

The Church of Christ acknowledges no earthly 
power as the source of its maintenance or success. 
It may be repressed in one country for a time, but 
it will rise again in vigor, showing the innate vitality 
it possesses from the divine source from which it 
emanates, to spread itself over the whole earth and 
to remain there till the end of time for the salvation 
of men. 


CHAPTER X. 


Mohammedanism. 

FT1HE neglect of the conversion of the Asiatics to 
the Christian faith has been partly attributed, 
in a previous chapter, to the internal disorders and 
refractory spirit prevailing in the Greek element of 
the Christian fojd. 

Another most powerful and active cause operating 
towards the exclusion of Christian missionaries from 
Asia, together with the expulsion and perversion of 
the Christians who had established themselves for 
ages in Palestine and the neighboring countries, 
must be ascribed to the rise and rapid develop- 
ment of the religious-politic system established by 
Mahomet. The means employed by this self-styled 
prophet for the formation of his religion, and the 
mode he enjoined upon his followers to enforce its 
propagation, distinguished him as the most unique 
amongst the human authors of systems, religious 
or otherwise, that have drawn to their acceptance 
multitudes of adherents. 

The history of Mahomet shows to what a singular 
position of power and influence directive to earthly 
120 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 1 21 

conditions of others and their eternal destiny an 
obscure individual is capable of attaining. 

If Mahomet had any ambitious aspirations when 
a young man, he did not manifest them. Being 
inclined to the occupation of a trader of merchan- 
dise, his proclivities would appear to tend towards 
a quiet life rather than the din of battle accompany- 
ing a religious warrior’s career. His marriage with 
a wealthy widow placed him in easy circumstances, 
affording him the leisure and means to speculate on 
his subsequent career of adventure and unbounded 
ambition. When forty years of age, he announced 
himself privately to a few of his friends as the 
prophet of God. His pretensions, however, met 
with such displeasure and opposition as would dis- 
courage one less determined. Mahomet was not 
discouraged. He gained adherents in time by per- 
severance, with the inspiring influence of resolute- 
ness. Thinking himself strong enough to impose 
by force his rule over Mecca, his native city, 
and its vicinity, he attempted, in A. D. 622, to 
coerce into submission all who opposed him. In 
the conflict which followed the prophet’s party was 
defeated, and Mahomet sought refuge in the city of 
Medina, where he strongly fortified himself against 
attack. Medina not only afforded Mahomet an 
asylum, but also became a prolific recruiting centre 
for his newly-formed army ; for his promise to his 
followers of a life of many blessings on earth, and 
the certainty of endless happiness in a future state, 


122 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


found ready response from the Arabs, the warlike 
sons of the desert. Viewing his forces, thus con- 
siderably augmented, he resolved to retrieve his 
lost cause at Mecca and force that city to acknowl- 
edge him as its master. In his attack upon the 
city he was entirely successful, the power of his 
adversaries being entirely broken. He found it of 
little or no difficulty to force all to accept his new 
doctrine, however reluctantly, the exercise of free 
will with safety of the person being disregarded. 
This was the beginning of the Mohammedan power. 
It spread with almost the rapidity of a conflagration 
over all Arabia. 

The spirit of fanaticism infused into the followers 
of Mahomet by the teaching of his doctrine, made 
them contemn all dangers in the assurance of obtain- 
ing the rewards promised. If they were not in- 
vincible, they were at least a most determined, a 
most obstinate foe. Obstinacy or determination in 
modern warfare are of little weight, as success 
depends entirely on superiority of skill, of science, 
or of weapons, or on these combined. Not so in 
Mahomet’s days, and for many centuries after his 
age. Then, little superiority in weapons could be 
attributed to any nation, as the sword, the shield 
and the spear constituted the principal armor of all 
nations. 

But then personal bravery and determination 
largely contributed to the gaining of a victory, for 
whole battalions could not be slaughtered as in 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


123 


modern warfare at long distance, but it was neces- 
sary to come to close quarters where resoluteness 
and skill determined the issue of an engagement. 

These few remarks are made concerning warfare 
that it may be understood how the Mussulmans 
increased so rapidly and extended the tyranny of 
their sway so widely in a short space of time. 

The patriot may stand unflinchingly where the 
mercenary would seek safety in flight, but even the 
patriot, however brave, could hardly withstand the 
assault of an enemy animated with fanaticism such 
as Mohammedanism inspires. The history of their 
wars and victories confirm these assertions. Few 
in number, like all other politic or religious bodies 
that have come to greatness, they eclipsed all others 
in the extent of their conquests and the numbers of 
their adherents in the first century of their existence. 

After the collapse of the great Roman empire, 
none of the powers established on its ruins could 
extend its rule over the many nations that owed 
submission to that empire. Petty kings and princes 
parcelled it amongst themselves, and no one excelled 
every other as to be regarded preeminently superior. 
An army of enthusiasts like the Mohammedans, 
with unity of motives and purpose resulting from 
blind obedience to the same religious teaching, 
vanquished with ease the luxurious rulers of the 
east. They next directed their operations against 
the Greek power, the most formidable that they had 
to encounter. But the Greek emperors were little 


124 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


removed from the luxury and effeminacy character- 
istic of the eastern ruler. They had degenerated 
from wielding the sceptre with justice, impartiality 
and firmness. They had relinquished the honorable, 
martial spirit for the field of polemics and religious 
disputations. Consequently, they could offer but 
feeble resistance to the invading Mussulmans. 
Province after province was subjugated by the 
victorious Mohammedans, city after city fell into 
their hands. Jerusalem and the adjacent places, 
rendered holy by the presence of the Saviour of 
men in his earthly life, shared the same fate. At 
length they swept down like a torrent on Con- 
stantinople, the capital. Only the strength of the 
fortifications saved the city from capture. For 
eight consecutive years, 670-678, the terrified citi- 
zens beheld the dreaded invaders before their walls 
awaiting the fall of the place. The siege was 
abandoned from many motives, but only to allow 
the disappointed besiegers to direct their operations 
elsewhere. 

All Christendom now became alarmed at the 
rapid spread of the Mussulman power and religion. 
The Christian nations were the only ones that 
seriously obstructed the Mohammedan path to uni- 
versal conquest. Therefore they rightly esteemed 
the Christians their most formidable opponents. 
Having renewed the attack on Constantinople under 
the Caliph Soliman, after a siege of thirteen months 
they were forced by the Emperor Leo, the Isaurian, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


125 


to retire with heavy loss. Subsequently they turned 
their faces towards the west, where many kingdoms 
and principalities had arisen in the dismember- 
ment and final overthrow of the Roman empire. 
A similar tide of success bore them to victory in 
Southern Europe to that which marked their eastern 
conquests. Spain soon lay at their feet, and the 
march over the Pyrenees commenced. Filled with 
consternation, Christian Europe flew to arms. 
France was the first object of attack. The re- 
nowned Charles Martel and Count Eudes did not 
wait to be attacked, but marched against the invad- 
ing host. Anxiety filled every breast as to the issue 
of the impending encounter. 

The hostile forces met at Poitiers. There, in A. D. 
632, was fought the battle that freed Europe from 
the fear of Mohammedan domination, stemmed 
the tide of conquest and forced the invaders to re- 
cross the Pyrenees into the peninsula. 

These two reverses somewhat subdued Moham- 
medan ardor for fresh conquests. The retention, 
however, of the provinces already conquered with 
their intolerable treatment of all Christians who 
had the misfortune to become their subjects by the 
power of the sword, proved a standing menace to 
the Christian nations of the world. 

Africa offered an easier prey to the followers of 
the false prophet and less formidable foes to dread. 
There was found more susceptible soil for the sow- 
ing of their false doctrine. And there, consequently, 


126 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the Mohammedan faith spread far and wide. There 
the barbarous or semi-barbarous state of the in- 
habitants could not be expected to oppose serious 
obstacles to the imposition of the Mohammedan 
rule and religion. Hence so many millions of 
Mohammedan worshippers have been found in the 
nations of Africa. 

As a series of great victories and the extension of 
its rule over others tend to the increase of a nation’s 
pride and a lessened regard for others, so it should 
be considered not surprising that the successful 
invasion of countries produced such effects on the 
Mohammedans. 

In the reverses sustained at Poitiers and Con- 
stantinople they learned to respect the Christian 
warriors of the west. They treated, however, in a 
most galling manner the unfortunates who had 
fallen into their power in the east. They did so 
with impunity because there was no power strong 
enough to assail them in their strongholds of the 
east. They had little to fear from the impotency 
of the declining Greek power. 

The nations of Europe may be said to have been 
in a state of formation at the time of Mussulman 
victories in the seventh and eighth centuries, so that 
the undertaking of a great foreign expedition could 
not be apprehended from any of them. Therefore, 
the condition of Christians in the east, under the 
followers of Mahomet, was both sad and miserable. 
Especially to those making pilgrimages from Europe 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


127 


to the Holy Land was the treatment by the Mahom- 
medans intolerable. 

The love of many for their Divine Saviour filled 
them with the desire to view and venerate the 
places hallowed by His birth, His labors and cruel 
death. Hence numbers of pious Catholics made 
frequent pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The treat- 
ment which these pilgrims experienced from the 
Mahommedans, the masters of Jerusalem, was not 
of such a nature as to encourage the faithful to 
continue these visits. 

It was always the same story these pious devotees 
had to tell to their neighbors when they returned 
alive from the former home of the Jews : Suffering 
both morally and bodily, indignities beyond measure, 
and, finally, the deprivation of the means with 
which they had provided themselves in order to 
defray the expenses of the pilgrimage. Their pitiable 
condition, on their return, excited the commiseration 
and sympathy of all who had heard of the inhuman 
treatment they had suffered from the unbearable 
custodians of the holy places. 

The affecting narratives of the Christian pilgrims 
became the topic of public gatherings and private 
parties. The valor of Christian chivalry felt 
taunted ; it required but the spirit of organization 
to make its prowess felt by the sensual and fanatic 
Mussulman, to make just retaliations for the hate- 
ful treatment of the pilgrims. 


128 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


In the eleventh century, the Christian nations of 
Europe were aroused to indignation by the affecting 
descriptions of the wrongs the Christians had to 
endure, without redress, by earnest and vehement 
harangues of Peter the Hermit, who, being an eye- 
witness to Christian sufferings, had been authorized 
by Pope Urban II. to visit the Catholic countries 
and arouse in them sympathy for their co-religionists, 
and to instigate the princes and nobles to remedy 
the evil by the justifiable punishment of the offenders. 
These exhortations produced the desired effect, call- 
ing into existence expeditions known as the Crusades. 
No more picturesque display of military bodies is 
recorded than that presented by the armies called 
forth by the fire of eloquence to avenge the in- 
dignities and injuries inflicted for ages on the devout 
pilgrims who -visited the historic spots of the Orient 
connected with their redemption. The natural re- 
ligious zeal to see the Cross tower above the Crescent 
must have intensified the ardor and electrified the 
chivalrous spirit that animated the participants in 
these vast military expeditions, undertaken to wrench 
the Holy Land from Mohammedan domination. 

The first and greatest of the Crusades was under- 
taken in 1095. Well organized and led by the 
most illustrious military chiefs of the age, it pro- 
duced an alarming effect for the safety of his empire 
on the mind of the Greek emperor, Alexis Com- 
nenus. The united army of the several nations 
that took part in this Crusade comprised 700,000 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


129 


men. No such mighty host did Europe or Asia behold 
since the time Xerxes led his army of 1,000,000 
against the Greeks. Though numerically strong, 
the Christian army was, from its international char- 
acter, weak. Though united for one great object, 
the freedom of the Holy Land from Mussulman 
oppression, rivalry and national prejudices weak- 
ened the efforts of the army when the combative 
operations of the campaign began. The covert op- 
position of the Greek emperor had also to be experi- 
enced. He had earnestly solicited the intervention 
of the European nations, for the benefit of the down- 
trodden Christians of the east. But true to the 
national character, he manifested his fickle disposi- 
tion when he beheld the Christian army in his 
dominion, by impeding its progress, instead of aiding 
it towards the successful issue of the campaign. 
Then sickness, disease, and privations of various 
descriptions, aided effectively the Mussulmans in 
thinning the ranks of the invading host. Yet, not- 
withstanding stratagems and obstacles placed in 
their way to deter them from their purpose, the 
Christian forces defeated the Mohammedans in sev- 
eral great battles, notably those of Nicsea and Dory- 
lseum. These Mohammedan reverses opened up the 
way to Jerusalem ; the last contested, but one of the 
principal objects of the Christian expedition. The 
vast army had dwindled down to 50,000 when the 
Christian warriors descried the famous city. 

9 


130 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The Mohammedan forces also experienced the 
ravages and diminishing effects incident to so great 
a campaign. They were no longer capable of com- 
bat in the open field with the victorious Crusaders. 
With the exception of a few strongholds, the Holy 
Land had been wrenched from their grasp. 

The strong fortifications of Jerusalem might well 
inspire the hope of a long siege ; but the besiegers 
were intent upon its capture. Without it, the Cru- 
sade could not be considered a complete success. 

Christian valor was at length rewarded by the 
taking of the city on the 25th of July, 1099, after 
a siege of five weeks. This was the crowning act 
of the first and greatest Crusade. 

With the expulsion of the Mohammedans from 
Palestine, the leaders of the Crusaders seemed satis- 
fied. They returned to Europe with their forces, 
leaving a small body of 5,000 of cavalry and 
infantry under Godfrey de Bouillon, elected King of 
the conquered territory, for its defence. 

Though the Mohammedan armies recoiled in dis- 
order, with heavy loss from the shock received in 
the collision with their Christian foes, yet Mussul- 
man power was not broken, nor the aspiration to 
further conquest, nay, universal dominion, apparently 
diminished by their loss of the Holy Land. They 
probably regarded their reverses as a temporary loss, 
to be recovered with interest in future struggles. 
That they had no intention of abandoning the hope 
of regaining their lost spoils, they made evident as 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


131 


soon as they had sufficiently recuperated the strength 
of their shattered armies. In less than fifty years 
from the time of their final defeat by the first Crusade, 
they resumed hostilities, capturing some of the 
slightly protected Christian strongholds and menac- 
ing others. This necessitated the appeal for another 
Crusade. The Popes, as the supreme pastors of the 
fold of Christ, naturally felt alarm for the safety of 
the universal flock and the Christian possessions at 
the rapid advance of the terrorizing Mohammedans. 
Hence they became the principal instigators to the 
undertaking of these crusading expeditions. Their 
appeals, through eloquent preachers in the most war- 
like nations of Europe, generally received a gratify- 
ing response from the nobles, princes, and reigning 
monarchs. Yet, notwithstanding their valor, good 
discipline, and formidable equipment, all of the 
Crusades, except the first one, may be pronounced 
failures, in realizing the principal object of these 
expeditions. Some evil genius would seem to preside 
over the movements of these great armies, allowing 
them to go to destruction or rendering them abortive. 
Some, like Crassus and his Romans, perished in the 
desert. Others, like the 10,000 celebrated by Xeno- 
phon, accomplished long marches in many privations 
and dangers, till they came in sight of some large 
body of red-cross warriors. At the close of the 
twelfth, or beginning of the thirteenth century, the 
Saracens or Mohammedans had re-established their 
rule over most of Palestine. 


132 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The saintly King, Louis IX. of France, led the 
Crusaders in the last two expeditions to restore 
Christian rule in the land of the Jews. These, 
however, met with no better success than the pre- 
ceding ones. 

The chivalrous King, emboldened by success in 
reducing Damietta, marched against Cairo, but, in 
turn, was defeated, and both himself and his army 
taken prisoners by the Mohammedans. 

Obtaining his freedom by ransom at the conclusion 
of peace, Louis was fired anew with noble ardor to 
recover the holy places, and plant the Cross above 
the Crescent. Having raised another well-equipped 
army, he embarked on his last earthly expedition. 
He intended first to subdue the Bey of Tunis, who, 
he believed, had deceived him in not furnishing aid 
as promised for the success of the Crusade. During 
the siege of the place, Louis caught the distemper 
that committed ravages among the troops. Knowing 
death to be nigh, he prepared for it with the disposi- 
tion of a Christian ruler, noted for sanctity during 
life. He died the death of the Saint and valiant 
soldier; spending his last moments in the most 
edifying manner, not only to those who surrounded 
him, but also to posterity. Thus, fruitlessly, like 
most of the others, terminated in A. D. 1270, the 
eighth and last of the crusades. 

Different opinions have been held regarding the 
necessity or utility of the Crusades. It would require 
very strong arguments to show that any immediate 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


133 


or absolute necessity existed for such gigantic expe- 
ditions, involving great loss of life and expenditure. 

That there existed Christian grievances against 
their oppressive Mohammedan rulers in Palestine, 
may be admitted without question, for where is the 
country under their rule, inhabited by Christians, 
that has not known degradation from the intolerant 
followers of the false Prophet. Yet, unless the 
Christian nations of Europe were united, and firmly 
determined to establish a power in the Holy Land, 
to hold it in perpetuity, the Crusades could hardly 
be productive of lasting benefit to Christianity, or 
those Christians whose conditions they were intended 
to ameliorate. 

An army, under a divided command, cannot 
achieve such substantial and permanent results as 
one of equal proportions, under a single command. 
It is manifest that this was the principal defect 
with the Crusades, viz. : the want of unity in their 
organization and command. 

With unity of leadership, concentration of troops, 
when judged most effective in operation, can be easily 
effected ; whereas, with separate, independent com- 
mands, such an efficient disposition of troops can 
scarcely be expected, where there exists rivalry 
between the leaders, and even among the lesser officers 
and soldiers, when these are of different nationalities, 
as in the case of the Crusades. 

That the Christian nations of Europe had no 
strong determination to establish a permanent, effi- 


134 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


cient power in the Holy Land, may be evinced from 
the indifference or apathy with which nearly all of 
the Christian monarchs regarded the later Crusades. 
Such spasmodic efforts, viewed politically, could not 
be productive of durable beneficial results. 

But, though the Crusades may not be pronounced 
a political success, yet they were not unproductive of 
international fruit. Man’s best interests are not 
promoted by the superiority of the political system 
alone under which he lives, but also, and principally, 
by his success in trade, or profession ; in other words 
by success in business, with the anterior benefits of a 
good education and all that supplements or develops 
it in sound literature. 

To the Crusades must be ascribed the extension of 
mercantile business, and also the impetus to the study 
of international literature, promoting the acquisition 
of knowledge of great utility in the various occupa- 
tions of life. The nations of Europe and Asia were 
brought into closer relations with each other. The 
indigenous products of either continent found ready 
acceptance for those of the other, till international 
commerce rose to such a degree of prosperity as to 
be considered of national importance. 

The arts and sciences were not neglected ; the 
close contact into which they were brought, aroused 
the curiosity of the inhabitants of both continents 
to know as much as possible of the customs, pursuits, 
occupations, and general character of each other. 
Hence the impulse to the study of foreign languages, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 135 

whereby the literary treasures of eastern nations 
became the cherished acquisitions of those of the west. 
Thus did the Crusades contribute largely to indi- 
vidual and national prosperity, to intellectual devel- 
opment, social refinement, and to the interest of 
civilization. 

That religious, political power sprung from Mecca 
has, like other merely human institutions, experi- 
enced the vicissitudes of fortune attending human 
productions. It shot forth like a tropical plant; 
with the sword as its decisive argument for extend- 
ing itself and indulging the sensual propensities of 
its subjects, it attained to a dazzling altitude in a 
brief space of time. In its ascent, it included in the 
shade of its expanding branches no inconsiderable 
portion of the fairest regions of the earth. In less 
than a hundred years from its birth, it may be said 
to have reached its greatest limits. 

In the first half of the eighth century, the followers 
of Mahomet had conquered Arabia, Persia, Asia- 
Minor, Egypt, and other places in North Africa. 
They struck terror into the subjects of the Greek 
empire; overran its provinces, and threatened the 
capture of its capital, Constantinople, in repeated 
sieges of the city. They startled all Europe by 
their sudden appearance and victories in Spain. 
They rushed like a torrent over the Pyrenees, down 
into the valleys of France. There their course was 
reversed. At Poitiers, by the powerful blows of 


136 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Charles Martel, the Moslem host was stunned and 
forced to retrace its steps to the Peninsula. 

This defeat together with that experienced by 
another powerful Mohammedan army near Con- 
stantinople, relieved the Christian world from the 
greatest menace of Mohammedan aggression. Their 
capture of Constantinople in 1453, might appear to 
some to mark the time of their greatest power. 
Yet, their power for successful invasion after that 
event was more apparent than real. They subse- 
quently made some attempts to revive their former 
reputation as conquerors of new countries, to be 
added to their dominion, but were forced to relin- 
quish the enterprise by superior Christian valor. 

In the nineteenth century the Mussulman power 
has rapidly declined. It has been weakened internally 
by division, externally by loss of many of its best 
possessions. At one time in its history, it vied with 
Christianity in extending its sway over the minds and 
bodies of men. Now, near the close of the nineteenth 
century, it is out of the race for supremacy. The 
Sultan of Constantinople, regarded as the most 
powerful of Mussulman rulers, is now known as 
the sick man of Europe. The political doctors have 
repeatedly been called in to prescribe for him. At 
every visit his case is pronounced more hopeless. 
His once vast dominion is fast dwindling into 
remnants. It is well known that he exists by 
Christian sufferance, or the disagreement of Christian 
rulers. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


137 


Events point to the speedy disappearance of the 
Crescent from Europe, and even in Asia and Africa, 
to the rapid decline of whatever is left of the once 
dreaded religious-political, but demoralizing power, 
that in more than one period of its existence threat- 
ened the existence of Christendom. 


CHAPTER XI. 


The Church a Pacificator. 

mHE angelic hymn of praise to God and peace 
and joy to men, announcing the birth at Beth- 
lehem of the Saviour of men, fittingly inaugurated 
His peace-promoting earthly life, as well as the 
pacific course of His Church which He founded for 
the gathering into one fold of the nations of the 
earth. Christ is justly described in Scripture as 
the Prince of Peace. It was with the salutation of 
peace that He was wont to address His disciples : 
“ Peace be to you.” 

Peace is desirable to all good men, and conse- 
quently the good of every nation labor and rejoice 
to possess it. In general, the prosperity and happi- 
ness of a nation may be measured by the degree of 
peace to which it has attained under its political 
and spiritual guides. Even the ambitious, pursuing 
the objective realization of the mental ideals, the 
lovers of the din of battle, will feel satiated when 
the novelty of gilded yet ghastly scenes has passed 
away, when the nerves become impaired, the spirit 
depressed and the senses glutted to satiety with 
138 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 139 

the carnage of war, attended with the desolation 
accompanying the devastator’s tread. 

The welfare of the individual, as well as that 
of the nation, demands the possession of peace. 
Without it all other possessions, all other acquisi- 
tions would be found unenjoyable. The violation 
of the Divine law or the justly enacted human law 
under which one lives and, with regard to nations, 
the failure to comply with the requirements of 
international law, cause respectively agitation to 
the mind and commotion to the mass of the people. 
But, although it be easy to offend, and thus bring 
on the undesirable condition banishing peace, it has 
been generally found an irksome and humiliating 
duty to return to a satisfactory course of tranquility. 
The delay in the return to man’s peaceful condition, 
when lost, renders life not only unpleasant but even 
burdensome in the highest degree. Christ came on 
earth to give peace with God, with one’s self and 
with one’s neighbor. He emphasized the possession 
of true peace when He said to His disciples : “ Peace 
I leave you, peace I give you,” etc. He, therefore, 
impressed upon His Church this character of true 
peace. If any other passage of Sacred Scripture be 
adduced as contradicting this peace-giving character 
of Christ, as when He says “ I came not to send 
peace, but the sword,” its meaning is to be applied 
to particular cases, as when a person, by his con- 
version to Christianity against the wishes of his 
near relatives, incurs their hostility and persecution. 


140 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

When the Apostles went forth to preach the 
Gospel, and convert the nations to Christianity, 
they astonished their enemies, whom determined, 
fearless preaching of the doctrines of Christ had 
stirred up to persecution. With imperturbable mind 
they received the punishment that was meted out 
to them as offenders against the law's prescribing 
worship of the pagan gods. Far from being terri- 
fied, far from losing mental tranquility at the sight 
of tortures to be endured, they even rejoiced when 
they had anything to suffer for the name of Jesus. 
The Christian martyrs also, of both sexes, in the 
most trying circumstances, experienced such inward 
peace as often to exasperate the cruel Roman judge. 
The imposing display of military or civil power, of 
forensic subtlety, of the alternate threats and bland 
promises of the pagan judge, could not disturb the 
serenity of these true heroes. The true doctrine of 
Christ, besides imparting peace to the individual, 
conveys it also to the people or the nation col- 
lectively. Of the former, what has been already 
said may be deemed sufficient. Peace, collectively or 
to the nation, requires a fuller consideration to show 
its influences and beneficial results. As Christ is the 
great spiritual pacificator, His universal commission 
to His disciples in sending them, immediately before 
His ascension into heaven, to teach all nations, 
necessarily included the peace-producing fruit of 
His doctrine to the believers. As these increased 
in numbers in many nations, they diffused the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


141 


beneficial influence of their pacific character among 
the mass of the people. Yet the ruling power of 
the nations was either pagan or idolatrous. It 
dreaded the potency of the Christian religion, whose 
avowed object was the absorption of the members 
of all other religions by their conversion from false 
to the true religion. The alarm of many at the 
institution of Christianity among them, instigated 
them to unite their efforts for its final overthrow. 
In this endeavor they were most powerfully aided 
by the secular or political rulers, who regarded 
themselves as the avengers of neglect of the gods, and 
defenders of the pagan worship. Hence ensued the 
bitter struggles between the pagan emperors of the 
great Roman empire and the Christian Church. 
No national peace could be experienced in that 
disturbed condition of society. 

But when Christianity triumphed in the struggle 
and Paganism was hopelessly supplanted by the 
victor, a new era of peace and charity dawned upon 
the nations. The rulers, who had imbibed Chris- 
tianity, would necessarily be constrained to curb the 
propensity to unwarranted violation of international 
peace, or invasion of another’s dominions, through 
the greed of territorial acquisition, or personal 
aggrandizement, knowing they must be judged by 
a just and omnipotent Judge, who would avenge 
with punishment, transcending all earthly punish- 
ment, the wrongs unjustly inflicted by the powerful 
upon the weak. 


142 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


There have, however, been Christian rulers, whose 
wars undertaken for trivial reasons, would seem to 
indicate a want of that salutary dread aroused by 
the belief of having to render a strict account to the 
Judge of all men. Such deserve the just reprobation 
of the good ; they will never be honored as models 
tendered to succeeding rulers for imitation, and they 
will never receive that tribute of honor so desirable 
to all, the praise of posterity. 

In the fourth century, the triumph of Christianity 
over Paganism was assured ; in the fifth, the mighty 
fabric of the Roman empire, long manifesting sym- 
toms of decay, crumbled into pieces. This event 
created new conditions, political, social, and religious. 
Roman civilization had affected but lightly, if at all, 
some of the distant portions of the empire. Out of 
these, especially in the north and east, hordes of 
barbarians rushed like a torrent, sweeping all before 
them ; spreading terror among the defenceless inhabi- 
tants, not desisting from their hostile course, till they 
reveled in the luxuries of Italy. They smote with 
fear the inhabitants of the nation that had made 
her sons rulers of the world. 

In this state, approaching chaos, what power was 
there to intervene for the benefit of humanity ; to 
restore order to the disturbed nations, suffering from 
the general confusion that prevailed ? What power 
existed strong enough to subdue the fierce invaders, 
whose furious assaults, the well-trained Roman felt 
and dreaded in many a field of battle ? 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


143 


Who, above all, should be the Saviour of society, 
threatened with demoralization, by the domination 
of the barbarian over what was civilized in the 
empire? There was no other pacificator for the 
general politically and socially disturbed condition, 
than the Church of Christ. To its head the terrified 
people looked for protection. 

The Popes responded with paternal care. Twice 
did they cause the terrible hosts of Huns and Goths, 
thirsting for the blood and plunder of Roman citizens, 
to retire from the walls of Rome. These barbarians, 
whom Roman superior military skill, as well as 
attempts to civilize, failed to subdue, gradually 
yielded to the conquering influences of Christianity. 
By its harmonizing effects, they soon assimilated with 
the people among whom they settled by force of arms. 
From this intermixture there sprang new nations, 
new powers ; some of which continued for ages, 
others still more durable and consolidated, continue 
with little change or modification to the present day. 

The task of the Church, after barbarian rule suc- 
ceeded that of the civilized Roman, was to harmonize 
it for the benefit of nations, and make it in time 
harmonize with the teachings of the Gospel. How 
successful she has labored towards this end, history 
attests. Though a people or a monarch may accept 
the true faith, there may remain in the one, or the 
other, or both, propensities to what is contrary to 
the spirit of their faith, and yet require time and 
prudence in treatment, before they can be eradicated 


144 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


from the character, or so weakened as to be harmless 
in causing evil. 

If the new powers and nations, that were formed 
after the dissolution of the Roman empire, acknow- 
ledged the Spiritual sway of the Church, they still 
retained many of their superstitions, their barbaric 
customs, with the innate tendency of making incur- 
sions on others, instigated by uncurbed passions 
rather than counselled by sound reason. 

With the appearance of the feudal system, its 
growth and wide extension, this warring tendency 
found abundant nutriment to strengthen and impel 
it to bloody strife among the chiefs, petty princes, 
and monarchs, who by the sword parcelled among 
themselves the civilized countries of the earth. To 
stay this internecine strife, the Church applied herself 
with the sorrow that afflicts the maternal heart in 
in seeing her offspring engage in dreadful conflict, 
and with the determination to spare no effort to 
restore peace to the unnatural enemies. 

Sometimes it happens that even a mother’s grief, 
with affecting supplications, proves ineffectual to 
allay the fierce passioffs that urge to deeds of blood. 
The Church also, notwithstanding her solicitude 
and anxiety for the peace and welfare of her children, 
had often to endure the pain of seeing her interven- 
tion unproductive of the fruit of reconciliation 
without the decision of the sword. Generally, 
however, most gratifying results attended her efforts 
to promote the interests of peace among the nations, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. ' 


145 


and if not harmony at least honorable respect 
among the ambitious members of the ruling element. 
The truce of God, which she introduced for the 
sake of humanity, proves her ardent desire, fructified 
her strenuous labors for the desuetude of martial 
strife, and for the perennial reign of peace and 
harmony among the peoples of her fold. 

The peaceful effects of the truce of God can hardly 
be over-estimated. It was accepted as a principle 
obligatory to all rulers in Christendom, to desist 
from all warfare from Wednesday each week to the 
following Monday. It thus acted as an intermit- 
tent, a statutory truce, to the belligerent parties. 
Who cannot perceive that its effects must be to cool 
the passions, afford time for reflection, and constrain 
them by its moral effects from a continuation of 
hostilities? It would be difficult to ordain a more 
practically effective means for the abolition of 
war, as also all lesser strifes decided by the force 
of arms. 

To attain to a state of perfect peace on earth is 
more than the dissimilar dispositions of men, and 
their varying circumstances, will permit. The 
nearest approach to it is to confine the possibility 
of acts of violence within a small portion of time, 
with the threat of the gravest penalties to be in- 
curred by the violation of the restrictive law. This 
peace-promoting remedy the Church successfully 
appointed; for which humanity, together with civ- 
ilization, owes her a debt of gratitude. 

10 


146 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The Church has always pursued a pacific policy 
towards the nations when her own existence or the 
safety of her flock is not menaced ; but when this 
takes place, then defence becomes a right, a duty. 
Such a condition existed in the time of the Crusades, 
also in the subsequent aggressive expeditions of the 
Mohammedans against the Christians. 

The secession from the Church, in the sixteenth 
century, of a portion of her flock has considerably 
lessened the beneficial influence of this pacific course 
by the effects emanating therefrom modifying the 
relations of Church and state, or entirely separating 
them. 

The writer, here, neither defends nor condemns 
the union of Church and state; he states a fact. 
The baneful effects on the maintenance of peace 
among Christian rulers, of the religious separation 
referred to, by the withdrawing from participation 
in the benefits of the pacific policy of the Church, 
may be clearly perceived in the appalling loss of 
life that occurred in the many wars that have arisen 
out of disputes caused among Christian people 
within the period from the secession to the present 
time, a space of between 300 and 400 years. Ex- 
cepting the wars of Christians and non-Christians, 
the Christian blood that sprinkled the battle-field 
in all the wars from the fall of the Roman empire 
in the fifth century to the sixteenth, dwindles into 
insignificance when compared with the torrents that 
drenched the battle grounds of opposing Christian 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


147 


armies since Luther established a separate Church. 
This unnecessary sacrifice of human life, with its 
consequent heavy burden of taxes on the industrious 
and peace-loving inhabitants, and especially the 
tendency of a class of society to bring all others by 
violence down to their own level, who ignore all 
law, set all authority at defiance, threatening the 
very fabric of sound moral society, have induced 
the wiser, far-seeing statesmen to eagerly desire to 
see again the pacific intervention of the Church for 
the best interest of all classes of Christians. This 
of itself may be taken as an indication of that much- 
desired reunion of all separated bodies of Christians, 
that as of old there may be but one fold extending 
itself on all sides till it takes in all the nations of 
the earth for the Good Shepherd. 


CHAPTER XII. 


The Church an Educator. 

mHE desire of knowledge is innate to man. Nor 
does it suffer abatement with increase in age, 
as long as sound health is enjoyed, but would seem 
rather to become intensified with maturity of years. 
Hence the mental activity of some whose old age 
and appearance of debility might cause one to judge 
terrestrial existence might have no charm for them, 
nor the world in which they live any secret worthy 
of their application to know. 

Without adverting to any particular branch of 
education or knowledge, the avidity with which all 
classes in all ages, ancient and modern, have sought 
after news, sufficiently confirms this assertion. It 
finds, moreover, its illustration in the almost con- 
tinual perusal in modern times of the daily news- 
papers and periodicals. The vast discoveries that 
have been made from age to age ; the many won- 
derful inventions, products of the human mind, 
that have changed the appliances in industries with 
a great diminution of labor; the metamorphosis 
of things thought immutable resulting therefrom, 
whilst contributing to satisfy the wants of the 
148 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 149 

human race in its ever-increasing numbers, devel- 
oping the resources to which they have recourse : 
these act as a stimulant to further pursuit in the 
regions of the unknown to increase the general 
store of knowledge. 

To the formation of communities we must look 
for the origin of education as a system. The wants 
of the citizens had to be attended to. These gave 
rise to trades and professions, which in turn de- 
manded the employment of competent teachers and 
instructors, so that the theoretical knowledge of 
arts and professions might precede, and prepare 
those to be afterwards practically engaged in them. 

Patriotic politicians had little difficulty to per- 
ceive that the various classes of a nation owed the 
amelioration of their condition, their wealth and 
prosperity in great part to their proficiency in their 
various industries and professions by means of a 
good education. They also perceived that what 
might be predicated of it with reference to the 
individual might, in a more extensive sense, be 
applied regarding a whole nation. To the great 
attention given to the general education of their 
citizens or subjects may be principally attributed 
the great superiority, both in commerce and mili- 
tary affairs, of the Egyptians, the Greeks and the 
Romans over other nations. Yet education in gen- 
eral depended for its teaching and advancement, 
not on the mandate of a nation’s ruler or the execu- 
tive power, but owed its encouragement and dis- 


150 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


semination to individual patronage or the combined 
efforts of some of the members of a community, 
who interested themselves in the education of a 
portion or the whole of the citizens. 

That this means of conferring the benefits of 
education, viz., individual patronage and support as 
well as denominational or sectarian efforts for the 
benefit of those professing a particular formula of 
faith, has prevailed from the time of the origin of 
systematic education, is a sufficient proof of its 
efficiency and acceptability to the general mass of 
mankind. In this free and generous manner of 
educating the mind and developing its powers, pro- 
ductive of such glorious mental fruits as the history 
of illustrious individuals attests, coercion was natur- 
ally unthought of, if not suggested, and then by the 
mass detested as savoring of despotism, whether 
emanating from the individual ruler, or the collective 
body in a republic or democracy. In this multiform 
system of education, the advantages of it were made 
evident, the opportunities abundant. It was left to 
the parent to obtain or neglect its benefits for his 
offspring. Herein, in the judgment of many, lay its 
defects. Not all parents perform their relative duties 
toward their offspring; and not the least flagrant 
violation of parental duty has been the indifference 
to, or the neglect of the education of his child. 
Consequently, illiteracy prevailed in a nation accord- 
ing to the extent of the parental neglect. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


151 


In the rivalry of nations, which rivalry indeed 
may be said to have existed in ancient, as well as in 
modern times, but more undisguisibly noticeable in 
the latter half of the nineteenth century, such a 
condition of things could not escape political atten- 
tion in Christian nations, which, though believing 
in one God and the same Saviour of mankind, yet 
differ considerably in their forms of belief. 

Then was inaugurated a new, national, political 
system of education, whose principal object is the 
elevation of the nation by means of educating the 
individual. In this system the freedom of the in- 
dividual in matters of education is denied, whether 
the government be monarchic or republican ; coercion 
is the means employed to make all - reach a certain 
standard of knowledge. How far this system may 
be successful it would be unsafe to assert, as it is at 
the time of writing this work still in its infancy. 

As the matter of education not only affects the 
parents, but also the Church or religion to which the 
child belongs, it may be conceived how difficult the 
subject of education is to settle in a manner satis- 
factory to parent, Church and state. 

Many causes operate to retard the acquisition or 
deprive the individual of a good education. Chief 
among these are the designs of despotism, directing 
all things to the benefit of one or the favored few, 
and the ascendency of a bigoted religious majority 
over a minority in a state where different forms of 
religion have their respective adherents. 


152 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The culpable neglect of parents in not affording 
the opportunities and the means of a good education 
to their children justly deserves the strongest censure. 

One of the gravest of the most deplorable causes 
injuriously affecting education in a nation, as it does 
industry and the general welfare of a people, is the 
terrible scourge of devastating war. But if many 
nations be involved in some violent far-reaching 
commotions the extent of the baneful effects can 
hardly be estimated. 

Such political conditions existed at the subversion 
of the Roman empire near the close of the fifth 
century and continued long afterwards. The col- 
lapse of the greatest political structure that the 
world has ever seen could not fail to make itself 
sensibly felt even in the remotest parts, to the 
furthest bounds of civilization. Apart from her 
antagonism to Christianity, Pagan Rome exercised 
an effective, civilizing influence on all the nations 
brought under her sway and all those which for 
mutual benefits enjoyed her alliance. 

In her vast scheme for giving durability to her 
conquests, as well as preparing tribes and peoples 
for absorption into the empire, she relied on educa- 
tion as one of her principal resources. The manners 
and customs of the Romans were soon adopted by 
the people in whose country the Roman standard 
had been planted. 

The necessity to understand each other in the 
intercourse of life, after the decision of the sword, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 153 

led to the introduction of the Latin language, 
which thus became most widely known and spoken 
by many nations in conjunction with their own. 
The Gauls, the Britons, the Spaniards and other 
nations sent their children to the schools to learn 
the Latin language. Especially the noble youth of 
each of these countries completed their transforma- 
tion into Roman subjects by a thorough study of 
the Roman language and literature. How success- 
fully the Romans established their language in other 
nations may be understood from the vast number 
of words in the present languages of the three 
named nations bearing affinity to the Latin. Rome’s 
vastly superior military power, her tranquilizing, 
civilizing efforts by means of education, changed, 
in course of time, these once fierce enemies into 
subsequently loyal, confiding subjects. To her they 
looked for protection in all national dangers, to her 
was confided their instruction and guidance in both 
civil and political matters. 

When the crash of the fall of the empire came, 
its disastrous effects manifested themselves in many 
nations, producing fear and anxiety where tranquility 
and assurance of peace had reigned, confusion and 
chaos where respected order had flourished. The 
uprisings of the lawless and the arbitrary imposi- 
tions of the ambitious, exacted by force of arms, 
sent a thrill of woes from one end of the fallen 
empire to the other. By the dissolution of the 
empire education suffered most severely. 


154 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


In states where the strong arm of power and 
order had disappeared, ambitious aspirants to regal 
or quasi-regal honors claimed a share of the coveted 
provinces, enforced their pretentions by physical 
force, consequently strifes and petty wars were of fre- 
quent occurrence between rival claimants for power, 
drawing after them followers favoring their cause 
to the detriment of industry and peaceful pursuits. 

In such a disturbed state of society, education is 
neglected, the bearing of arms dazzling the youth 
more than application to study in order to enrich 
the mind. The frequent call to arms of the chief 
or military leaders upon their retainers necessarily 
altered the domestic relations, and the youth had to 
take the place of the older members of a family in 
attending the farm or the paternal home. Civili- 
zation experienced a repulse; education, its most 
beneficial friend and companion, being neglected in 
the national tumults, only surpassed by the devas- 
tation of invasions, undertaken from the motive of 
territorial greed. 

What power, what organization was there to 
restore order to a condition of things bordering on 
anarchy? Fortunately, for the benefit of mankind, 
for the cause of education, for the cause of civiliza- 
tion, there was a power to step in as a general 
pacificator — not with the sword, indeed, but with a 
weapon still more effective, the power to quell the 
raging passions of warring men, and lead them 
back to the enjoyments of the coveted state of peace, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


155 


to enlightenment of the mind by education, and to 
the interrupted work of civilization. This was the 
Church of Christ. The conversion of the barbarians 
who inundated the provinces of the empire, when it 
no longer rested under the imperial sword, was the 
primary object of the Church. 

Italy appears to have been the principal object of 
attack to the military hordes that spread in successive 
waves over her fertile plains, and flowed in revelry 
through her luscious vineyards. Rome dreaded the 
approaching enemy in the far reaching lines of fiery 
Huns at the Mincio, under fierce Attila; and after- 
wards beheld the devouring Vandals under Genseric 
roll up in menacing array to her gates, as it had in 
a previous age viewed with discomfiture the defiant, 
taunting display of Hannibal’s dusky host, flushed 
with their great victory at Cannae over the Romans. 
As in the latter occasion she was saved by her walls, 
so in the former she was preserved from capture and 
plunder by the intervention of supernatural power, 
as history records, through the medium of Pope 
Leo I, whose mediation had more effect in dissuading 
the barbarian hosts from their hostile purpose than 
the presence of a great Roman army could produce. 
The Pope was only partially successful in appeasing 
Genseric, who entered the city and imposed on its 
inhabitants some of the penalties of the conquered. 
Many of the invading hosts that have from time to 
time entered Italy and fertile tracts adjacent to it, 
found the temptation to make their abode in the 


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invaded districts too strong to overcome, and retire 
to the less fertile lands from which they came. To 
the conversion of these, the Church most ardently 
applied herself with gratifying success. The sub- 
duing influence of Christianity was in course of time 
felt by those far off as well as those near the centre 
of Christendom. Peace then began to assert itself 
over the nations. With peace came the desire to 
many to apply themselves to the study of arts and 
sciences. The Church found powerful allies for 
spreading the benefits of general education in the 
persons of some of her royal children. Charlemagne 
in France, and Alfred in England, may be honored 
as two of the earliest sovereigns, who, with paternal 
sentiments, exerted themselves for the promotion of 
general education among their subjects. By these 
sovereigns, in conjunction with the bishops and 
clergy, schools were established throughout their 
realms. 

These gave students to the higher schools and 
monasteries : some of the latter attained to high 
celebrity on account of the distinguished professors 
who from time to time filled the chairs of the dif- 
ferent subjects taught at these institutions of learn- 
ing. Many of them existed from an early age and 
preserved the lamp of learning in the general dark- 
ness prevailing in the times of domestic trouble and 
international strife, which were not unfrequent till 
the establishment of a durable power in the various 
countries of Christendom. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


157 


The institutions of education in Ireland seem 
to have been the best patronized of all European 
establishments from the sixth to the ninth or 
tenth century. The celebrated schools or monas- 
teries had on the roll students in number, including 
many from Britain and also from the continent 
of Europe. Subsequently seats of learning were 
established both in England and on the continent. 

The higher education soon began to be denomi- 
nated the scholastic, from the method or system 
practised therein. 

Among the scholastics were some of great erudi- 
tion, as Anselm, Lanfranc, Duns Scotus, Abelard, 
St. Thomas Aquinas, etc. These distinguished men 
were also devout members of the church which 
through them and others fostered the promotion of 
education for the benefit of all. These were suc- 
ceeded by the famous universities, many of which 
still exist, and, in a most flourishing condition, open 
annually their venerable classic halls as of yore to 
thousands of eager aspirants to the highest mental 
attainments. The national universities in Europe 
bear irrefutable testimony to the desire of the Church 
and her zeal for the enlightenment of the mind by 
study in the various branches of higher education, 
for intellectual development and for the pursuit of 
further knowledge in these branches. 

The value of these famous educational establish- 
ments for imparting to the fortunate youth of the 
nations the benefits of the highest education, may 


158 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


be estimated from the national pride manifested in 
the care bestowed upon their preservation, with the 
well-deserved patronage of the highest classes in 
sending the youth there to complete their education 
before entering on the particular occupations of 
their lives. Yet, since the defection from her fold 
in the sixteenth century, not infrequently has the 
imputation been made — proceeding from prejudice, 
of course — that the Church is opposed to the intel- 
lectual improvement of her subjects, and wishes to 
keep them in mental darkness. 

The existence of the universities affords, perhaps, 
the best, an historical, monumental testimony for 
the refutation of such false allegations. 

The Church, however, being the depository of 
truth, the guardian of those committed to her, has a 
right as well as a duty to perform : to disprove, to 
condemn the matter of education when she perceives 
the probability that it would be dangerous to the 
faith of her subjects. But, if the case of an educa- 
tional system dangerous to the faith or morals of 
.her children be excepted, it may be said with truth 
that the Church is a most ardent encourager of 
sound education. The invention of printing has 
greatly contributed to the facilities for education by 
simplifying its teaching by the teachers, and facili- 
tating the acquisition of knowledge by the scholar. 
The Church’s great labors in the cause of education 
had preceded that event. In recent times the labor 
has become so light, the means so simple, that she has 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


159 


been considerably relieved of the burden to provide 
a fruitful education for the benefit of man in his 
temporal and spiritual affairs. She laid the founda- 
tion of the educational systems, she fostered their 
growth, she continued her maternal care till they 
attained completion ; so now she may view their 
conduct by others with approval, as long as they do 
not lapse into a form hostile to the faith and morals 
of those whom she has regenerated for the kingdom 
of heaven. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Religious Agitation. — Things Leading to 
the Great Secession of the 
Sixteenth Century. 

rPHE Church which Christ established for the 
. salvation of man has sustained assaults from 
the century in which it had its origin. From the 
Cerinthian heresy in the first century to the slight 
defection in the nineteenth century, consequent to 
the declaration of Papal infallibility, nearly every 
intervening century has contributed its share to the 
heterogeneous mass of schisms and heresies that 
have attacked the unity or integrity of Christianity 
in some of its dogmas. While all have given trouble 
and sorrow, only a few have caused it serious injury. 
The first dangerous assault was the Ariau heresy in 
the fourth century, to which reference was made 
with a brief consideration in a previous chapter. 
Assailing but one principle of the faith, the divinity 
of Christ, with the skilful arguments of a mind 
endowed with superior powers, it penetrated to the 
core of Christianity, captivating by its speciousness, 
a considerable portion of the bishops, the ruling 
class in the Church. 

160 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


161 


When, in addition, it received the active support 
at intervals of intrusive, imperial rulers, it may be 
said to have shook almost to its foundation the 
Church of Christ. Yet it passed away, and the 
Church flourished. 

Then came the Greek schism, the second great 
religious storm, in the eleventh century, tearing 
away from the fold a portion of the faithful, to 
practise a form of worship only slightly different 
from that of the main body. It still maintains a 
separate existence, but, with the exception of fhe 
Russian Church, a national institution of indigen- 
ous growth, yet observing the rite of the Greek 
Church, its numbers and sw T ay are very limited, 
with no prospect now, if ever it had any, of becom- 
ing the universal church of Christendom. The 
third and last serious injury received by the 
Church had its origin in the violent commotions 
leading to the great secessions from her fold 
in the sixteenth century, erroneously called the 
Reformation. 

Though all the great schisms and heresies may 
ultimately be traced to one principal cause which 
will be considered in a succeeding chapter of this 
work, there are powerful auxiliary causes that de- 
serve the historian’s attention in investigating the 
origin of any great occurrence or event. These 
were not absent in the forces productive of the 
religious storms culminating in disruption in the 
sixteenth century. 

11 


162 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


First of these may be deemed kingly power. 
The steady growth of royal power during the two 
preceding centuries attained its summit in Spain 
and England in the sixteenth century, in France in 
the seventeenth. For many centuries the occupants 
of the thrones in the great nations of Europe en- 
joyed a more nominal than real power over the 
great nobles of their realms. The Duke of Bur- 
gundy was almost as powerful as King Louis II., 
and a combination of the English nobles forced 
King John of England to sign Magna Charta, the 
basis of English liberty, but defining and restraining 
the royal authority. Yet royal power persevered 
in weakening that of the aristocracy till the latter 
judged it imprudent and unsafe to oppose, at least 
physically, the royal authority. As the tendency of 
an aristocratic form of government is to a kingly 
one, in which it generally results, so it may be said 
with equal truth that a monarchy yields to encroach- 
ments of the people, and finally disappears in the 
establishment of a democracy or a republic. As 
civilization advances, the power of the people be- 
comes the more manifest, and few, if any, will be 
found to thwart their will in matters of government. 
But in the sixteenth century the authority of the 
king prevailed over all other ; he was not merely 
nominally, as in former centuries, but really supreme. 
This condition had its effect upon all his subjects, 
moral, political and religious. In previous ages, 
where feudalism prevailed, great questions often 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


163 


arose involving disputes between the king and his 
subjects, recourse was generally had to the influence 
and paternal authority of the father of the faithful, 
the successor of St. Peter. The exercise of this 
authority, when appealed to, was beneficently felt 
when the Pope intervened between the hostile 
forces in the nations where complications had arisen. 
It acted as a curb upon the arbitrary designs of the 
unscrupulous ruler who was forced to yield to its 
influence. With the increase of kingly power, 
however, papal influence became weakened ; the 
exercise of its power being seldom admitted, if not 
wholly rejected, in great national questions. Jeal- 
ousy of intervention from an external source in the 
ecclesiastical affairs of a nation, as well as in those 
of a political nature, grew apace with regal power. 
By this power the bond uniting Christian nations 
was broken. It enabled the ruler who assumed a 
hostile attitude to the Pope to disregard the paternal 
voice of the father of Christendom. 

By it he could intrude upon the nation subject to 
him whatever peculiar form of worship was pleasing 
to the royal mind. By it Henry VIII. of England 
could proscribe Catholicity, that had been the faith 
of the nation for nearly a thousand years, and intro- 
duce a mongrel form which has been undergoing a 
course of transformation, at least in practice, from 
its inception to the present time. A similar course 
was pursued by the kings of Northern Europe and 
the quasi-regal rulers of the states of Germany, who 


164 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


had embraced new doctrines. The mandate of the 
ruler sufficed to coerce the terrorised subject to adopt 
and profess the religious principles pleasing to his 
royal master. There could be no sincere conversion 
of the subject in such a condition. Life and pos- 
sessions are dear to man and much will be endured 
rather than experience their loss. But time proves 
the foundation and durability of institutions. What 
subject to-day, in any of these nations, would heed 
the mandate of its ruler affecting his religious con- 
victions? How time changes the conditions and 
relations of men ! 

The leaders of the sects, formed by those severed 
from the Church in the sixteenth century, soon per- 
ceived where the motive-power of a nation lay. 
Thither they directed their most strenuous efforts ; 
no argument being needed to convince them that if 
the head of a nation was gained to their peculiar 
doctrine, the conquest of the rest would be of easy 
accomplishment. Hence the rulers of European 
nations were importunately besieged by the religious 
innovators. These were ever ready to subserve the 
royal caprice, provided they retained his favor and 
approbation for the propagation of the principles 
of their sect. Thus did Cranmer and his associates 
bow obsequiously to the will of Henry VIII. ; 
Luther and his co-laborers to that of Philip of 
Hesse, in countenancing the bigamous actions of 
these rulers ; Calvin attempted to win the heart of 
the King of France to his doctrine, but completely 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


165 


failed. His followers, however, the Huguenots, 
gained a temporary success in that nation, where, 
with unusual boldness, intrigue and violence, they 
threatened for a time the existence of the national 
faith. In a brief period, where only one religion 
had hitherto been practised, there prevailed many. 
As in its political life, so also in its religious, each 
nation became distinct from all others. Each had 
its peculiar form of worship, fostered and supported 
by the state. Autocracy, or domineering over the 
minds of men to shape their religious belief, may 
continue for a time, but a re-action with the force of 
a gathering storm will at length come; it has long 
since appeared to the rulers of these nations. The 
advance of civilization made the power of the peo- 
ple felt. Nothing short of representative govern- 
ment will satisfy their aspirations or be ratified by 
their will. Hence the progressive disintegration of 
those national churches that drew their resources 
from the power of the state. They had been but 
apathetically attended by the masses from their 
beginning, an evident consequence of the motives 
that led the great majority of the people to join 
them. Their hollowness in later times has been 
apparent to all, having fallen from the main Christian 
edifice, the material for cohesion was not to be found 
in them. 

The human mind knows its responsibility to 
God alone for its religious course, and, though it 
may act hypocritically under coercion, it will revolt 


166 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


when the opportunity presents itself, with disaster 
to those who brought it into bondage. This is 
what is taking place at the present time in the 
national churches which were forced upon the 
people in the sixteenth century. How many of the 
people are active members of these churches? The 
statistics of the churches show that they are few in 
comparison with the whole population. The people 
are gradually freeing themselves from the errors in 
which they had been involved. They can read and 
understand the history of the Christian religion. 
This informs them that Christ established only one 
Church, and that it would continue to the end of 
the world. Naturally, they desire to belong to that 
Church, to secure themselves from the wrath to 
come upon all who knowingly refuse to enter the 
great Christian fold. Hence, they are finding their 
way, all classes, into the Church from which their 
forefathers had been driven by moral and physical 
force. Not the least significant sign of the magni- 
tude of this religious movement is the ever-increas- 
ing number of ministers of the different persuasions 
who find peace for their souls in the Catholic Church. 

Another of the causes deserves notice. The 
accidental invention of printing, though a valuable 
one for the promotion of education and learning, 
must be accredited with its share in fulminating 
the massing religious clouds that burst with un- 
manageable fury over Christian nations in the six- 
teenth century. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 167 

The acquisition of knowledge by learning at 
school or elsewhere was necessarily impeded by 
slow process when nearly all aids to it had to be 
supplied by the hand or tongue. As all works 
were in manuscript, the cost of a person’s education 
amounted to no inconsiderable sum, so that those of 
the middle class of society, not blessed with abun- 
dance of the goods of the world, had to practise 
frugality and economy to give their children the 
means for a fair education. 

The cheapness of printed work, the facilities 
afforded by it both to the teacher and the scholar, 
and the impetus given by it to the diffusion of 
knowledge, should claim for this invention the 
right to be esteemed as one of the greatest aids to 
enlightenment of the mind and the rapid progress 
of civilization. 

By means of the press, though still in its infancy 
in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the 
authors of new opinions in religious matters were 
enabled to spread far and wide their doctrine in 
much less time than formerly and at a fraction of 
the cost required in the former condition of things. 
Especially was the new invention utilized in multi- 
plying copies of the Scriptures, for it was on the 
dissemination of these that those dissatisfied with 
the Church sought to revolutionize it, as if it had 
been a merely human institution. 

It must have inflated the mind of the compara- 
tively ignorant peasant, who had scarcely mastered 


168 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the elements of education, reading and writing, to 
have been pressed to receive a copy of the Bible so 
that he might read himself the word of God and 
judge for himself its meaning, and not altogether 
depend upon hearing it read by another with the 
Church’s interpretation accompanying. The new 
apostles had yet to discover by experience how 
wonderful a book the Bible is, leading to different 
opinions concerning its contents when left to private 
interpretation. But its extensive distribution at 
that time served a purpose. 

The imputation against the Church by the religi- 
ous agitators, that she wished to keep her subjects 
in darkness concerning the Scriptures, appeared to 
be emphasized by a general distribution of these 
among all those whose minds were wavering or 
already susceptible to new doctrine. 

Those who have received no education, and those 
who have received but little education, afford to 
those preaching a new gospel most suitable material 
for converting them into fanatics. Thus it hap- 
pened in the religious commotions of the sixteenth 
century. Printing afforded its aid in the religious 
movements by increasing the facilities for spreading 
new opinions and the means for concerted action 
among the leaders of the agitation for separation 
from the Church ; it sent the Bible broadcast, as the 
great charm for drawing recruits to the new colors. 
More will be found written of the Bible in a subse- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


169 


quent chapter, regarding its place in relation to the 
work of man’s salvation. 

The last of the secondary causes to be considered, 
affecting the religious commotions, was the fall of 
the Greek Empire, the capture of Constantinople 
by the Turks. That event caused a thrill through- 
out Europe. 

By it the Mussulman was enabled to renew his 
menace against the Christian nations. Many of 
the fugitive Greeks sought and found asylums in 
Christian countries, rather than accept the servile 
conditions of the unchristian conqueror. 

Although the Greeks could do little for or 
against either of the parties in the impending 
struggle, as their religious tenets harmonized with 
those of neither, yet their presence was felt; for 
their tenacity in maintaining their peculiar opinions, 
contrary to the decree of the Catholic Church, 
regarding matters of faith common to both Greek 
and the separatists of the sixteenth century, may 
well be conceived to have exerted its influence, 
rendering those also tenacious who, tired of her 
rule, determined to formulate for themselves a 
new faith, contrary to the teachings of the same 
Church. 

Whilst these refugees, therefore, contributed in 
no little degree to the revival of the Greek language 
and literature throughout Europe, they cannot be 
credited with any pacific influence on the disturbed 
state of religious feeling in nations professing Catho- 


170 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


licity at the close of the fifteenth and beginning of 
the sixteenth century. 

These enumerated causes have been mentioned, 
not as the primary cause or great source from which 
the lamentable religious revolution sprang, but as 
feeding and extending the appalling conflagration 
when the torch had been applied. 

The human mind had been profoundly agitated 
by the able and skillful presentment of new religious 
principles intended to supplant those it had un- 
waveringly held as inseparable from the hope of 
eternal happiness : the heart, the passions were 
inflamed to that degree when tension can no longer 
bear the strain. The germs of discontent, commotion 
and separation had been in process of fermentation 
even before the end of the fifteenth century, but it 
was in the beginning of the sixteenth when they 
assumed the form of a seething mass. It required 
but a dexterous hand to give it shapely form and 
set it up as a rival church to that which had come 
down from the Christian era. This directive power 
it found in the person of Martin Luther, an 
Augustinian Monk of the Catholic Church. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Maktin Luther. 

SPHERE were many leaders in the great secessions 
from the Catholic Church, which took place at 
different times in the sixteenth century. As in every 
great crisis some individual eclipses in celebrity all 
others, so no other draws so much attention in the 
religious events of that century as did Martin 
Luther. He may be termed the prime-mover in 
the agitations that culminated in the defection from 
the Church of several of the northern nations 
of her fold. Hence he is accorded in history that 
prominence which he enjoyed in life. 

In his early life, he gave no indication of his future 
celebrity. His mental powers, though not extraor- 
dinary, were good, whilst his diligent application to 
study with his proficiency in dialectics made him no 
mean antagonist. But what he possessed came to 
him through laborious study, not by intuition. 
Luther had not yet chosen a profession for his career, 
when by an accident he was impelled to seek the 
benefits of a religious life, to secure himself spirit- 
ually against the many accidents and dangers to 
which life in the world is exposed. 


171 


172 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The sudden death of a companion by his side, by 
lightning, was the cause of his prompt determination. 
He joined the Augustinian Order of Monks, at 
that time one of the most distinguished societies of 
religious in the Church. There Luther had in- 
creased facilities afforded him for the development 
of his mental faculties, and the enlargement of his 
store of knowledge. Luther renounced the world, 
with its concupiscences and those of the flesh, when 
he made the vows of poverty, chastity and obedi- 
ence. Some years later, in time of temptation, he 
failed to fulfil the obligations he had thus taken 
upon himself. In temperament he was impetuous, 
irascible and combative, so that it may be supposed 
that his monastic life was not of the smoothest 
tenor. Raised to the priesthood, he might well be 
expected by his superiors to be an ornament to his 
order. 

In appreciation of his ability he was appointed 
Lecturer on dialectics and theology in the Univer- 
sity of Wittenberg. Here he more than satisfied 
the trust reposed in him, for he regarded no bounds 
appointed him, only limiting himself with what 
self-satisfaction required. Flavoring his lectures 
with sturdy eloquence, he drew no inconsiderable 
audiences from admiring students. In short, he 
gained a reputation for learning, ability and 
eloquence; but, further, he struck the chord of 
national sentiment, and rose on the tide of popular 
esteem. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 173 

Luther was born in a time of religious disquietude. 
The strange opinions and teachings of Wycliffe in 
England, and of Huss on the continent, had but 
slightly preceded his own day. They may have 
acted on Luther as an incentive to investigate the 
reasons for the existing form of Christian belief. 

The activity of those who at intervals appear to 
disturb the peace and endanger the welfare of 
Christ’s Church, should be deplored and counter- 
acted by all just, legal and human means, but no 
one has authority to punish them with death. 
Hence, the burning of Huss, if done for his reli- 
gious opinions or teachings, was an assumption of 
power detestable to all just men and to all lovers of 
humanity ; for to whom has God given the right to 
punish with death his fellow-creature because of a 
difference in belief? 

The Lord has reserved to Himself the right to 
punish all who knowingly and wilfully recede from 
true belief. A Christian should not be less opposed 
to capital punishment for errors in faith than was 
the greatest of the Romans, in the case of Catiline, 
for conspiring against the republic and attempting 
the destruction of Rome. There is a condition of 
the human mind, the natural and ordinary one, 
of giving willing obedience to God’s precepts and 
those lawfully appointed to lead the individual to 
eternal happiness. There is another in which the 
individual is willing to give an indefinite obedience 


174 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


to God, but chafes under restraint from another, 
and seeks uncontrolled freedom. Into the latter 
Luther appears to have fallen. 

The granting of indulgences by Pope Leo X., 
was made the occasion of strenuous efforts against the 
Pope’s authority, and subsequently led to an attack 
on the form of faith existing from the days of the 
Apostles. As many may not know adequately the 
meaning of an indulgence, it is not out of place here 
to explain it. All sins wilfully committed, violat- 
ing any of God’s commandments, or of any of the 
precepts of the Church which Christ established for 
the salvation of men, deserve punishment, eternal or 
temporal, according to the gravity of the offence. 
When the eternal punishment with the guilt that 
incurred it, is remitted by the worthy reception of 
the Sacrament instituted by Christ for the forgive- 
ness of sins, it is the teaching of the Church, that 
a temporal punishment sometimes remains to be 
performed by the penitent, the person absolved from 
the guilt of his sins and the eternal punishment due 
to them. An indulgence means the remission of the 
whole or a part of this temporal punishment. An 
indulgence does not forgive sin nor the eternal pun- 
ishment due to it. 

Since Christ has imparted the power to forgive 
sins to the teaching or directive order of His Church 
in the persons of the eleven Disciples, to whom he 
said after His resurrection from the dead : “ Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


175 


they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you shall 
retain, they are retained” (John, ch. xx, v. 22-23), 
why should it be thought an unwarranted assump- 
tion of the chief ruler of the Church to grant the 
remission of a temporal reparation for sin, which 
benefit is almost infinitely less than that conferred 
through the ministrations in the Sacrament of recon- 
ciliation ? 

The rulers of nations, and even less exalted 
officials, exercise the right to save the condemned 
from execution, to commute the sentence passed 
upon him by the appointed, the lawful dispensers of 
justice, or even to pardon the judicially convicted, if 
they deem there are sufficient reasons for exercising 
clemency towards him ; why should it be judged 
unreasonable or beyond the power of the ruler of 
the whole Church, the successor of him to whom 
Christ said : “And I will give to thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou 
shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be 
loosed also in heaven” (Matt., ch. xvi, v. 19), to 
exercise clemency in spiritual matters. But the 
attack on the right to grant indulgences was merely 
an out-post affair in the great campaign which 
Luther thus inaugurated against the whole Church. 
There was no definite scheme for conducting the 
campaign at its beginning ; for Luther had not yet 
given form to the institution which he hoped would 
replace the Church he intended to demolish. Soon 


176 


GUIDE TO TKUE KELIGION. 


almost every article of faith became the object of 
his attacks. Then the usual treatment of erring 
sons was practised by the officials of the Church to 
bring him back to the path of duty; but all in 
vain. All remonstrances, all friendly discussions, 
all efforts to make him retract were lost upon Luther. 
He had determined on a separate course, and re- 
solved to follow it. 

Finding all reconciliatory efforts unattended with 
success, Leo X. issued his bull of excommunication, 
June 14, 1520, against Luther. The sturdy doctor 
took occasion, from the reception of the bull con- 
demning him, to emphasize his separation from 
all ecclesiastical authority by publicly burning the 
bull in the market place of Wittenberg. Having 
by this act renounced communion with the Church, 
he applied himself vigorously to the formation of a 
new system of belief. This, from its author, has 
been called the Lutheran faith, and all of its fol- 
lowers Lutherans. 

In a time when all Europe professed one faith, it 
is not surprising that the civil law should contain 
some enactments in defense of the national faith 
against all who should assail it, because disturbance 
among the citizens, detrimental to the nation, was 
apprehended from the attempt to propagate new 
doctrines hostile to the established religion. 

Governments had not yet reached that desirable 
state of granting freedom to worship according to 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


177 


every form of belief, and to teach different religions 
doctrines. 

Fortunately for Luther, though condemned by 
the representatives of the civil power, assembled 
at the Diet of Worms, the sentence of exile pro- 
nounced against him was not carried into effect for 
different reasons, but principally through the inter- 
vention of Frederick, Duke of Saxony, in his favor. 
Luther’s doctrine soon found many adherents, and 
was propagated with great success in the provinces 
of Germany, and the countries north of Germany. 

To ascertain the cause of its rapid extension, 
requires no laborious inquiry. It is found in the 
light, the insignificant demand made on its believers 
to make them as comfortable as they please in this 
life, and so happy in the life to come, that they can- 
not conceive its extent. It is probable Luther had 
no idea of the length he was about to go in his 
antagonism to the Church, when he disputed with 
Tetzel about indulgences ; for if he had, he would 
hardly think it worth the while to bestow his efforts 
on such a trifling subject, when he meditated the 
rejection of the fundamental principles of Catholic 
faith. 

There is a natural tendency in man toward a 
condition of unlimited freedom. He knows, either 
by intuition or acquired knowledge, that this con- 
dition is beyond his possible attainments, either in 
this life or in his future state of existence, for un- 
limited freedom cannot be enjoyed by a dependent 
12 


178 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

being, such as man is. The nearer he approaches, 
however, to unbounded liberty, the more he is 
pleased, and consequently the means judged by him 
conducive to the highest degree of freedom attain- 
able will not be neglected. 

The fulfilment of the duties imposed in some 
form of faith is the means by which man hopes to 
obtain eternal happiness. 

Although, for the most part, those Christians 
dissenting from the Catholic form of belief admit 
that there is only one true Church, yet such una- 
nimity of opinion does not exist as to the necessity 
of only one form of faith. Hence, the peculiar 
form of belief characteristic of each denomination of 
Christians. The duties imposed by the acceptance 
of the doctrines of non-Catholic bodies, however 
much they differ when compared one with another, 
are light when compared with those required of her 
members by the Catholic Church. 

The Catholic has the same tendency and love of 
unlimited freedom as the non-Catholic, but he 
believes there is only one true faith according to 
the words of St. Paul, “One Lord, one faith, one 
baptism” ( Eph ., ch. 11, v. 5). Knowing this, the 
Catholic restricts his liberty within narrower limits 
in matters of faith and morals than the non-Catholic, 
that he may not be deprived of liberty in his eternal 
state after his life on earth ; but that he may by 
this restriction merit hereafter that true and suffi- 
cient liberty for his capacity, as a finite being, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


179 


which is enjoyed by the blessed in the Kingdom 
of God. 

That system or form of faith rendered apparently 
credible by plausible arguments, and promising 
through its observance eternal happiness, if it make 
the burden of the duties it imposes light, or if it be 
less antagonistic to the passions and sensible part 
of man, commends itself to many for acceptance, 
rather than one which lays greater restraint and 
exacts the performance of heavier duties. Hence, 
Mohammedanism, though principally propagated 
by the sword, induced many people to embrace it, 
when they had surmounted the great difficulty of 
believing Mahomet to be, what he pretended to be, 
the prophet of God. It gratified the passions by 
indulgencing the senses. It may be said to offer 
its followers a paradise here, as well as paradise 
hereafter. 

The Lutheran faith also offers many inducements 
to the Christian who can reconcile himself to its 
credibility. Instead of the Catholic doctrine, viz., 
that faith without good works is not sufficient for 
salvation, which is supported by the authority of 
St. James, the Apostle, who declares in his epistle, 
ch. xii, v. 26, that faith without good works is 
dead, Luther asserts almost a direct antithesis, say- 
ing faith alone in Jesus Christ suffices for salvation. 
Man, according to Luther’s doctrine, being entirely 
corrupt, can perform no good work : hence, he is 
saved by the merits alone of Jesus Christ, through 


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his faith in Him. With the exception of Baptism 
and the Eucharist, all the sacraments of the Church 
were rejected by Luther; and it does not appear 
that even these two are absolutely necessary for 
salvation. 

To subvert ecclesiastical authority and the priestly 
order, Luther taught the existence of a universal 
priesthood; that all Christians participated in the 
priestly character, being by their faith elevated to 
the performance of its functions. 

In a time of great disquiet, both mental, political 
and social, those dissatisfied with the religious prac- 
tices in force, the libertines, the lovers of novelty, 
and all who had any grievances, real or imaginary, 
against the authority of the Church, gave not merely 
attention but also a cordial reception to a doctrine 
that relieved them of the duties exacted by the 
Church, whilst assuring them of the attainment of 
the same desired object, viz., eternal happiness. It 
could hardly be expected to act as a deterrent from 
evil to believe that faith alone condones the greatest 
crimes that human depravity tends to commit. 
There is no incentive in it to the practice of a 
virtuous life, but rather an impulse to an irrespon- 
sible course of sin, provided the faith of the indi- 
vidual always exceeds his sin ; but who can know 
that the degree of his faith in Christ exceeds that 
of his guilt in committing sin? As this part of 
Luther’s doctrine gives a license to commit sin as 
long as the perpetrator is clothed with the panaceal 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


181 


cloak of faith, the deeds of violence, of unmerciful 
fanaticism that followed might be easily foreseen. 

If the Church did not condemn the cruel punish- 
ment by the civil power of former heresiarchs, she 
was made to feel a terrible retribution when seceders 
from her fold drew after them princes and potentates 
whose power was menacingly used to convert their 
subjects from the faith of their fathers. 

So far was intolerance carried by the princely 
propagators of Luther’s doctrine, that Lutheranism 
became the established religion in their dominions, 
to the exclusion of all other religions. To such a 
degree of assumption and daring did the more active 
followers of Luther proceed, that when there was a 
majority of Lutherans in the council of a munici- 
pality, which had hitherto been Catholic, a decree of 
the council was sufficient to abolish Catholicism, and 
prescribe Lutheranism as the only means in that place 
by which a man might hope to enter heaven. In few 
words, wherever mob violence or princely intolerance 
enforced by the sword, had rendered Lutheranism 
predominant, the option given to Catholics was 
either to embrace the new doctrine, or expulsion. 
It must be admitted this method from a human view 
of things was thorough, even efficient, for a time at 
least, in reaching the object intended, viz., the efface- 
ment of the Catholic religion from the countries 
where many causes conspired to establish Luther’s 
peculiar form of faith. Such was the first lesson of 
liberty of conscience given to Europe by the inau- 


182 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


guration of the new religious system. Nearly a 
thousand years before the existence of Lutheranism, 
Mohammedanism was propagated with far greater 
success by a similar process ; but who among Chris- 
tians, at any time, would believe, notwithstanding 
its alarming progress, that it would become the uni- 
versal fold into which all the nations of the earth 
would pour their contingents ? There was no reason- 
able hope, at any time, that Lutheranism could equal 
in dimensions the far-reaching limits of Mohammed- 
anism ; and how could it ever cherish the hope of 
becoming the universal faith of mankind, which 
that of the Church of Christ is predicted to be? 
Yet, notwithstanding its cold, frowning feature of 
intolerance, Lutheranism penetrated beyond the 
little states of Germany, finding a congenial home 
in the barren regions of Denmark and Sweden, 
where in an incredibly short time it became the 
established religion of the kingdoms by the will of 
the rulers. 

The reason of its rapid success are obvious. The 
wilful deprivation of the salutary effects of the Sacra- 
ments, instituted by Christ as means to salvation, es- 
pecially that appointed as a remedial for sins, forced 
the soul to rely on natural resources in its spiritual 
conflicts when assailed with temptations. Restraint 
of the passions was thus removed. What a flood of 
sins inundates the soul when the fear of them is re- 
moved by implicit confidence in the doctrine teaching 
irresponsibility for them ! The withdrawal from all 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


183 


ecclesiastical authority forced the substitute for the 
Church to the level of a social assembly. The mind 
was flattered, enthroned, when told that to it belonged 
the right to interpret according to its judgment the 
sacred writings of the Old and New Testaments, 
there being no preliminary qualifications of having 
acquired any certain degree of knowledge required. 

Cupidity was not wanting to add its powerful 
stimulant to the introduction and profession of 
Lutheranism. It was well known that monasteries 
and many churches possessed considerable wealth. 
From various causes this wealth had been increasing 
for many ages, principally through the bequests of 
rich Catholics and the charitable donations of the 
faithful. It had always been regarded with that 
respect which members of the Church showed for 
whatever pertained to religious institutions ; hence, 
in time of disturbance and even of war, it escaped 
the plunderers’ dreaded visit. In the religious revo- 
lution, however, it did not escape the attention of 
the leaders, who saw in the profession of the new 
religion a license to enrich themselves by despoiling 
these sacred institutions of their treasures. The 
thought of injustice in perpetrating such robbery 
did not trouble their conscience, for it was silenced 
by the panacea of a crime-condoning faith. 

A reaction at length set in : a reaction that con- 
fined Lutheranism within law-respecting limits. 
Several diets of the civil power had been held with 
the object of restoring peace to the disturbed condi- 


184 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


tion of society throughout Germany. These, from 
the antagonistic religious sentiments of the members, 
proved abortive. 

Charles V., then regarded as the greatest of 
Europe's sovereigns, viewing with dismay the 
threatening animosity of his German subjects 
against one another, resolved to try the effect of 
another diet to restore order in his troubled states, 
and harmony and good will to his warring subjects. 
The diet assembled at Augsburg, 1520, with the 
Emperor presiding. Here was formulated and pre- 
sented the famous Augsburg confession by the sup- 
porters of Lutheranism. Its claims being deemed 
inadmissable by the Catholic members, it promised 
to produce interminable discussion without any 
beneficial results. The emperor, therefore, seeing 
it was useless to prolong the debates, put an end to 
discussion and to the diet, issuing his decrees on the 
matters in dispute, which he thought justly calcu- 
lated to satisfy the merits of all parties. 

These, however, did not satisfy the Lutherans, 
who manifested signs of discontent and turbulence. 
These gave rise to the apprehension of a bitter war 
to decide who was supreme in the state, the Emperor 
or the Lutheran party. The arbitrament of the 
sword was averted till 1547, when each party having 
made great preparations for the overthrow of the 
other, the hostile armies met at Miilberg. 

An appeal to the sword should be avoided as 
much as possible by Christian peoples, who should 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


185 


manifest that good-will which was deemed worthy 
of the Angelic salutation of peace at the birth of 
our Saviour. Neglecting the duty of mutual for- 
bearance and the spirit of Christian toleration, some 
people allow themselves to be carried on the tide of 
misunderstood success, rashly confident in their 
numerical superiority, till suddenly they are dashed 
on the breakers of dejection and discomfiture. Thus 
it happened at the battle of Mulberg. Though much 
superior in numbers, they lacked that military train- 
ing and guidance, the want of which no religious 
ardor, not even fanaticism, can supply. Their forces 
shattered by the imperial army, under the skilful 
command of Marshal de Saxe, the Lutherans might 
justly apprehend a deep humiliation to be inflicted 
on them by their provoked emperor. On his side, 
Charles had good reason to hope, that his military 
success being followed up with firm, yet conciliatory 
measures, he would eventually restore peace and 
unity to his distracted empire. 

A political event, however, deprived the emperor 
of the fruits of his victory, and also saved the 
Lutheran party from further molestation. 

Richelieu, the shrewd minister of Louis XIV., at 
the head of the government of France, closely 
watched the issue of the struggle in Germany 
between the emperor and the disloyal portion of 
his subjects. He dreaded the unity of Germany, 
which he perceived to be the object desired by 
Charles, and to which the emperor’s success and 


186 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


plans so clearly tended. Richelieu’s clever diplo- 
macy had for its object the deprivation to Charles 
of his preponderance of power in Europe. He 
wished to see France in the ascendant. For this 
purpose he spared no efforts whereby his acknowl- 
edged political skill could be made efficient. The 
victorious commander of the imperial army, Mar- 
shal de Saxe, was approached, secret negotiations 
were carried on, with the ultimate result of great 
detriment to the emperor by the transfer to France, 
effected by the marshal, of the three provinces of 
Meetz, Verdum and Toul. This unexpected event 
relieved the Lutherans of further humiliation and 
punishment by the emperor ; for, viewing his 
altered situation through betrayal by his unfaithful 
commander-in-chief, he entered into negotiations 
with the leaders of the defeated party, which ended 
in the conclusion of peace. 

Thus was Lutheranism, after it had extended its 
limits so rapidly by violence, accidentally preserved 
from subjection, if not extinction altogether; for in 
those days the strong arm of the state, on whatever 
side it was used in politic-religious disputes, proved 
an irresistible argument, as is amply shown by the 
history of the times. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Luther. — Continued. 

MOSES, when he received the great honor of 
being selected by the Almighty as the instru- 
ment to deliver from their Egyptian bondage the 
descendants of Israel, felt such diffidence in his own 
ability to accomplish such a work that he shrank 
from the honor, on account of the difficulties appre- 
hended in the undertaking. Even when promised 
the Divine assistance and protection, giving him 
thereby the assurance that success would attend his 
mission, he still hesitated, expostulating with the 
Lord concerning his unfitness for achieving so great 
a work. Only when Aaron, who, it appears, pos- 
sessed the gift of eloquence, was associated with him 
as assistant in the onerous task of delivering the 
Jews from the powerful grasp of Pharaoh, did he 
consent to become the Lord’s ambassador, and enter 
upon his exalted mission. 

The slavery which the Israelites suffered in 
Egypt was that of the body, a state of existence 
unfortunately not rare, or unknown by experience, 
to many peoples at different ages of the world’s 
existence. It is a lamentable condition for man, 

187 


188 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


who was created to be free, and to whom was given 
the right of dominion over the whole earth, with 
the inferior creatures that live thereon. Though 
detestable, this species of slavery is not the worst 
which man is liable to endure ; there is another 
still more oppressive, more degrading, more pitiable, 
it is the slavery of the soul. Many a noble spirit, 
whilst the body was subject to the task of the cruel 
slave-master, rejoiced in the freedom of the mind, 
especially when he contemplated and sighed for the 
glory of his future state which shall be the inamis- 
sible possession of those who have served God 
faithfully and perseveringly to the end of their life 
on earth. 

The body does not draw the mind after it, but 
the mind the body. No wise man would give him- 
self into bodily slavery, though he can do so; much 
less would he give himself into mental or spiritual 
slavery. This latter species of slavery is what was 
imputed to all professing the Catholic faith, by those 
who revolted from the Church in the sixteenth cent- 
ury. They declared she taught false doctrines, and, 
therefore, that she kept her subjects in bondage ; 
for the natural tendency of the mind being towards 
truth and freedom, the opposite of these are false- 
hood and slavery. This assertion of the seceders that 
the Church acknowledged as the mother of all others 
of the true faith, and adhered to by the vast majority 
of Christians, teaches false doctrine, involves the 
question, can the Church which Christ established 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


189 


err? This question will be considered in a subsequent 
part of this work. If it be supposed that the Church 
did err in her teaching, it must also be deemed requi- 
site for leading her back to the teaching of sound 
doctrine, that more than ordinary means must be em- 
ployed. The ordinary means to deliver the Israelites 
from their Egyptian captivity, would be the employ- 
ment of successful military operations conducted 
against Egypt for that purpose; but the extraor- 
dinary or superhuman means used for their deliver- 
ance, was the effective use of the superhuman power 
with which Moses was invested. If, then, the cor- 
poral servitude of less than a million Jews drew to 
them the Divine compassion and protection to the 
extent of smiting Egypt with most afflicting chas- 
tisements, most destructive plagues, — principally as 
a favor for the fidelity of their patriarchal ancestors 
in worshipping.the true God during their lives, when 
nearly the whole of the human race was addicted 
to the worship of false deities; what might reason- 
ably be expected from the same All-protecting God 
towards the hundreds of millions of Christians, who 
for centuries lived and died in the shackles of alleged 
spiritual slavery ! And these would seem to have 
a much better claim to Divine care than the captive 
Jews, for they worshipped Him with supreme 
worship and no other; and they believed implicitly 
in His Son, through whose merits they hoped to 
attain to eternal happiness. Unlike the Jews, sigh- 
ing for the flesh-pots of Egypt, they were willing to, 


190 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


and did deny themselves of what ministered to the 
satisfaction and pleasures of the sensual appetite. 
Far from murmuring against the power ordering 
them to fast and do works of penance, they cheer- 
fully obeyed the ecclesiastical law ; chastised their 
bodies, that thereby they might render themselves 
worthy of the endless pleasures of the blessed in the 
Kingdom of God. Who, for an instant, would 
doubt that God would have a special care for such 
loving, devoted subjects ? Who would not believe 
that God, the Spirit of truth, would intimate to such 
willing servants that their alleged erroneous belief, 
their well-meant, but supposed false worship dis- 
pleased Him, visit their teachers with condign pun- 
ishment, even destroy the institution that it is sup- 
posed falsely claimed to be the repository of truth, 
whilst leading into error the peoples for whom His 
beloved Son’s blood cried to heaven for pardon, 
compassion and protection ? But in the many cent- 
uries from the Christian era to the sixteenth century, 
no sensible manifestation of the Divine wrath at the 
alleged spiritual slavery appeared to deter the spirit- 
ual guides from leading the people in the same path 
as had been done for so many ages by their prede- 
cessors. Where shall an explanation be found for 
this absence' of Divine intervention in such a sup- 
posed state of spiritual bondage ? 

It being evident, without the use of argument, 
that God has, at least, as great a protective solici- 
tude for those redeemed by the precious blood of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


191 


His Son, and who desire to and believe they serve 
Him, as He showed towards the Jews coming out 
of Egypt, who did not serve Him faithfully, but 
who displeased Him so much by their rebellious 
conduct as to render themselves deserving of the 
just punishment inflicted on them in the desert, it 
may be concluded that no real spiritual bondage 
existed in the Church, and that the allegation for 
it, when closely examined, will be found to be 
unsupported by reasonable proof. 

As no visible, no sensible, indication of divine 
displeasure at the teachings of the Church which 
Christ founded was manifest from the first to the 
sixteenth century, and as no separation of members 
worthy of remark took place from that Church, 
except those who seceded in the eleventh century, 
forming what is designated the Greek Church, the 
principles of whose faith, if the belief in the Pope 
as the supreme ruler of Christ’s Church be ex- 
cepted, are almost identical with those of the 
Catholic Church, it is now to be examined whether 
the startling performances of a monk of the Catho- 
lic Church, in the sixteenth century, resulted from 
a divine commission received to correct the errors 
and abuses of the Church, or if it were an under- 
taking assumed by the monk, the impulse to which 
emanated solely from the operations of the faculties 
of his mind. 

If Luther were commissioned by God to correct 
the teachings of the Church, doubtless he would be 


192 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


invested with the insignia of so great an office, with 
the power, at least, of working miracles to convince 
the doubtful that he was a true ambassador from 
God ; for the work undertaken to be accomplished 
is, after the redemption of man by a God-man, the 
most stupendous, the most interesting to man con- 
ceivable. 

But Luther had no such supernatural power ; he 
could not terrify the heart of the Pope, or any of 
the teaching order in the Church, by any super- 
human sign, as Moses and Aaron did when they 
moved the heart of Pharaoh by miracles to let the 
children of Israel depart out of Egypt. He did 
not even assert that he was divinely sent for the 
reformation of the Church. 

Some may say, however, that Luther, though 
not in a sensible manner commissioned by the Deity 
to effect great changes in the Church, was inspired 
from heaven to pursue the course he followed. The 
natural and reasonable rejoinder to such a supposed 
assertion is that no one is obliged, in a matter of 
faith, to believe any innovator on the strength of 
his own word or that of his admirers and supporters. 
For if credibility in faith be attributable to any 
person because of the assertion by himself or others 
that he is inspired by the spirit of truth to teach a 
doctrine opposed to the doctrine of the Church 
existing from Apostolic times, then any impostor, 
by a similar assertion, might claim attention to 
innovatory doctrine. Christ, the founder of the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


193 


Church, has not left her adherents in such a change- 
able, precarious condition. He has explicitly de- 
clared that the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth, will 
teach His Church all truth, and abide with her 
forever (John, xiv, 16). 

If, notwithstanding what has been said evincing 
the absence of divine authority for the singular 
course pursued by Luther, it should still be a 
matter of doubt how to regard him, the considera- 
tion of the character of the man, relative to the 
work undertaken, may lead to a satisfactory 
decision. 

From Noah down to the last of those under the 
Old Law whom God had chosen for the accom- 
plishment of any remarkable work, all were con- 
spicuous for godliness, as practisers of the virtues 
so highly esteemed by all men. The Sacred Scrip- 
ture bears testimony to the meekness of Moses. 
His love of retirement and freedom of ambition 
must impress the mind with admiration for a 
character so noble, so unpretentious, so transcend- 
ing that of men generally, who aspire after honors, 
joyfully accepting whatever positions tend to in- 
crease their esteem, power and fame with men. So 
the characters of all those selected by God for any 
mission or position of honor will be found on 
inquiry to possess the virtues, in a high degree, 
which commend them to admiration, and afford to 
the truly wise an incentive to their {imitation by 
others. Even Saul, before his appointment to reign 
13 


194 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


over Israel, was not destitute of the virtues that 
render the creature pleasing and acceptable to the 
Almighty. He evinces, in his conversation with 
Samuel, a true sense of humility regarding the 
family of which he was a member as among the 
last of Israel. Afterwards, however, he lost the 
divine favor by neglecting to act according to the 
instructions given to him by Samuel, the prophet 
and friend of God ; by assuming the functions of a 
sacred office pertaining to those appointed for it by 
an ordinance of the Supreme Being ; in general, by 
following his own judgment in matters in which 
the course of action was divinely prescribed. His 
reprobation followed, with a sad ending of his once 
promising career. 

Perhaps the most awfully impressive manifesta- 
tion of the divine wrath, against those assuming 
without right authority in spiritual affairs, is af- 
forded in the case of Core, Dathan and Abiron who, 
for opposing the authority of Moses and Aaron, 
were engulfed, in the sight of the Jewish people, 
by the miraculous opening of the earth. 

In the New Law necessity of godliness and the 
virtues that embellish jLe soul is much more 
strongly inculcated than in the Old Law. It has 
been emphasized by the author of the law Himself 
practising the virtues as a model for all His fol- 
lowers. 

The circumstances in which the Redeemer of men 
wished to be born afforded a very instructive lesson 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 195 

of His preference of poverty to riches, with the 
comfort and pleasures they may procure. The 
same lesson may be learned from the humble con- 
dition of His whole life. It is needless to state that 
He taught and practised charity ; for His public life 
speaks most eloquently of His mercy, compassion 
and love for wayward man. We behold Him 
chastise His flesh by the long fast in the desert, 
though it does not appear that He had need of it to 
keep the body in subjection ; but it afforded a 
needful lesson to all His followers directive of the 
means to be employed against the carnal propensities 
of man which, without a due restraint, will lead 
him to his ruin. His purity, His chastity, no man, 
not even His bitterest enemies, assailed. 

What a lesson of humility He gives at that most 
affecting of all scenes, except the sacrifice on the 
Cross, the last Supper, when He washed the Disciples’ 
feet. Christ did not practise these virtues in vain, 
or without a desired object. He desired all His 
followers to be imitators of Him, in sanctifying 
themselves by the practice of the virtues, for which 
He gave them in His own life the most perfect 
model. Of all Christians, the strictest imitation 
is demanded from all those who have been honored 
with admission to the state of Priesthood, who alone 
have the right to the performance of the priestly 
functions, which the Saviour Himself performed, 
and which He desired should be continued in His 
Church, to the end of time, for the salvation of men. 


196 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Tradition and the Acts of the Apostles furnish 
ample testimony of the fidelity with which the 
Apostles and the early Christians imitated their 
Divine Master, in the work of their sanctification. 
They practised poverty, for they divested themselves 
of whatever property they possessed ; contributing 
it to a general fund for the use of all. Their charity, 
brotherly love, shone so conspicuously in contrast 
to the cold and selfish character of those professing 
other religions, as to powerfully influence all who 
observed them, with a most favorable opinion of 
the Christian religion. Conscious of the spiritual 
combat in which all men are participants, they felt 
the urgent necessity of keeping the flesh in subjection 
to the Spirit, by restraining the passions, guarding 
the senses, fasting, constantly eschewing whatever 
ministered to the inferior appetite, gratified the 
passions, or tended to indulge carnal propensity. 
Such are the means practised by the Christians in 
the first age of the Church, and such are the means 
practised in all other ages since, and will be to the 
end of the world, for the acquisition of the same 
most desired of all objects, eternal happiness. 

The tenor of Christ’s teaching is manifestly the 
performance of penance for sin, with the firm inten- 
tion not to recommit it. An active charity, viz., 
the love of God and the love of the neighbor, true 
humility, self-denial, the rejection of everything 
tending to elate the mind, even at the perform- 
ance of a good work. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


197 


We know from His discourse to His disciples on 
the Mount what are the works most pleasing to Him, 
and most meritorious for the exaltation of their doers 
in the kingdom of heaven. He indirectly warns 
them on another occasion to keep themselves in great 
humility, by telling them not to rejoice because the 
evil spirits were subject to them through the spir- 
itual power with which they were endued, but to 
rejoice that their names were written in the Book of 
Life. 

St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, admonishes all 
to work out their salvation in fear and trembling ; 
hence the attainment of the highest sanctity does 
not exempt its possessor from the use of the common 
safeguards against falling into sin, because of the 
mutability of man’s spiritual state, as well as that 
of his corporal condition during the whole of his 
earthly existence. 

St. Paul speaks most forcibly of the necessity of 
a constant war against the flesh. He wishes all to 
be, like himself, unmarried (1 (7or., ch. vn, v. 7), 
that the work of their salvation might thereby be 
the more easily accomplished. Some might think 
that one so highly favored by the Almighty, and 
assured of His grace, would have little to tear from 
the enemies of his salvation. He declares, however, 
that, far from being without fear, he has great 
anxiety concerning the evil tendency of the cor- 
poral part of his being, and that, notwithstanding 


198 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


his elevation to the Apostolate, he is engaged in a 
great conflict. u I chastise my body,” says the 
Apostle, “ and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, 
when I have preached to others, I myself should 
become a castaway” (1 Cor., ch. ix, v. 27). 

Finally, that the spirit of the Gospel of Christ 
demands a life of penance, humility, love and sub- 
jection of the senses, with the passions, to the 
rational part of man, that eternal happiness may 
be acquired, no one of ordinary intelligence, who 
has read it, can doubt. If, then, conformity of 
character to the teachings of the Gospel be required 
of every Christian, much more strictly should it 
be demanded of those of them who have been 
entrusted with the responsible duty of teaching and 
instructing the rest to the knowledge and practice 
of what they should avoid and what they ought to 
practise, not only by word, but also by the power- 
ful means of good example, influencing all to the 
practice of virtue. 

It may now be asked, had Luther’s character this 
conformity? Does it resemble that of apostolic 
men ; for not less should be found in him of the 
indications of holiness than in them, for they only 
helped to establish the Church, but Luther under- 
took to reform the whole Church ? Where are the 
proofs of Luther’s humility? Whoever, without 
sarcasm, pretended that he was humble, unless it 
would be to excite ridicule? Yet the practice of 
this virtue is expressly commanded by our Divine 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


199 


Master, according to the Evangelist : “ Learn of 
Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” But 
what of charity — that virtue without which, the 
Apostle Paul tells us, though he possessed the 
knowledge of all mysteries, had all faith so that he 
could move mountains, if he gave all his goods to 
feed the poor, he would yet be deficient of a requisite 
for entrance into the kingdom of heaven? The 
charity here referred to may be expressed by the 
observance of the two great commandments of the 
law, viz., the love of God and the love of the 
neighbor ; we must love God above all things, for 
His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves, for the 
love of God. Where is the evidence of this love 
existing in the heart of Luther? On the contrary, 
his writings abound in coarse, uncharitable and 
abusive terms, especially if the object of his attack 
be an antagonist who criticises Luther's religious 
opinions. The reader is referred to his tirade 
against Henry VIII., of England, as a sample. 
In Luther’s invectives against Catholics and the 
Catholic Church are found a direct violation of the 
second of the two great commandments of the law. 
But why speak of charity, since Luther’s system 
denies the possibility of good works, maintain- 
ing that man cannot do a good work, because 
he is wholly corrupt. With this opinion of 
man’s impotence to do any good, it becomes 
evident that sound morality had no advocate in 
Luther. 


200 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


How does this reformer of the Church compare 
with St. Paul, regarding chastity; the possession of 
which cost the Apostle an unceasing conflict in order 
to keep the flesh in subjection to the Spirit. Luther 
acts differently ; he gives full reins to his sensual 
passions. The vow of celibacy, which as a 
monk he had made, formed no barrier to the 
indulgence of his carnal appetite; he broke it and 
married. 

This is a very inadequate sketch of Luther’s 
character, but, meagre as it is, it suffices to show that 
the virtuous characteristics of Apostolic men were 
conspicuously absent from the character of the man 
who had undertaken the superhuman work of re- 
forming in its principles the Church which Christ 
established, and which already successfully withstood 
the fiercely blowing storms, religious and political, 
for fifteen hundred years. 

Since Luther had no divine mandate to deliver 
the members of Christ’s Church from the bondage 
of alleged error, as Moses had to deliver from their 
Egyptian bondage the Israelites; and since the 
knowledge of his character neither tends to elevate 
the mind nor inspires to holiness, it is not a little 
perplexing to the mind to discover sufficient reasons 
why any one solicitous about his state of existence 
after his life on earth, should accept of a doctrine 
diametrically opposed to that professed by nearly 
all Christians from the date of the establishment of 
their religion. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


201 


Many think but little and superficially of their 
future state, giving nearly their whole attention to 
what concerns their earthly life, how they shall 
attain to prosperity in it, and how they may save 
themselves from temporal injury. To such it is not 
surprising that a form of religion requiring but few 
and light duties to gain eternal happiness should be 
preferred to one exacting the conscientious perform- 
ance of many duties, some even irksome to perform. 
Among the reasons assigned for a change of faith 
in times of religious revolutions this should not be 
overlooked. 

Luther failed in the attempt to reform the Church 
according to his wishes, but he succeeded in draw- 
ing after him many of her members. A consider- 
able portion of Germany and the sparsely inhabited 
countries north of Germany are the losses to the 
Church by the propagation of his doctrine. 

In his lifetime, he could view the limits of the 
fold he had formed. It has but imperceptibly, if 
any, increased since. Even in these countries, the 
religion of the people is gradually losing its Lutheran 
characteristics. Though these are the gains of 
Lutheranism, yet its author, it is probable, by the 
law of cause and effect, deserves to be credited with 
a far greater share, if not the whole of the secessions 
from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century ; 
others there were, who aspired after the honors of 
leadership in the religious world. As they came 
several years after Luther, when the Wittenberg 


202 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


professor had already, by the extensive dissemination 
of his religious system, gained considerable celebrity, 
it may be reasonably believed that his writings, prin- 
cipally, instigated them to the formation of the sys- 
tems of religion bearing their names. Their success, 
however, does not detract from his acknowledged 
claims to precedence, so that he remains the most 
conspicuous of the religious innovators of modern 
times. 

Lutheranism, though it boasted of freedom of 
thought, yet was gravely inconsistent. It announced 
individual right to interpret the Sacred Scriptures, 
whilst requiring of its followers not to hold opinions 
contrary to those given in the system for belief, 
adjudging those trangressing the limits appointed 
guilty of heresy, and obliging them, in case of 
refusal, to leave the denomination. 

If faith in Jesus Christ, with the Scripture as the 
only final authority in guiding one to salvation, be 
enough, what is the use or need of a religious organ- 
ization imposing its peculiar tenets upon others, since 
it admits the right of all-sufficient individual or 
private interpretation. Here is an evident incon- 
sistency. But a doctrine that teaches no restrictions 
to private interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures, 
must inevitably lead to religious anarchy; hence the 
establishment of authority for condemning and ex- 
pelling those of the Lutheran organization, who 
should hold opinions contrary to those prescribed 
to be held in the Lutheran form of belief. Though 


GUIDE TO TEUE EELIGION. 


203 


Luther could boast of no divine commission for his 
extraordinary course of hostility to the Church, yet 
he found a powerful weapon at hand to cut his way 
through all obstacles, and plant his standard of the 
new religion. This was the book of the Sacred 
Scriptures, so much revered by all members of the 
Church. To these writings alone, he attributed the 
authority of guiding men to their salvation. His 
rank of priesthood also received the respect and 
reverence of the faithful, because of its divine insti- 
tution, whilst his professional lectures procured him 
no little celebrity. 

When it is added that his novel doctrine fostered 
instead of repressing the passions and the inordi- 
nate, inferior appetites of man, it is not difficult to 
assign the cause of Luther’s sudden rise to popu- 
larity, or the acceptability of his doctrine to the 
people. 

The assumed authority of the Sacred Scriptures, 
so strongly relied on by Luther, will be considered 
in Chapter XVIII. 

Lutheranism, in its inception or in its existence, 
more than Mohammedanism, presents no reasonable 
proof of its divine inspiration. Both, therefore, 
must be rightly judged as human institutions ; both 
were founded and propagated by the same means, 
violence. Mahomet, with the sword, led his fol- 
lowers to the overthrow of all other religions but 
the one he imposed. Luther, personally, did not 
relish the wielding of the sword, a somewhat risky 


204 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


performance when opposing foeman’s steel, but had 
recourse to the pen, a no insignificant weapon for 
war or peace. He harangued, he instigated, he 
inflamed the minds of his followers to deeds of 
violence. Nothing was unholy to him by which he 
might accomplish the effacement of the Church in 
which he was tenderly nurtured. 

Human achievements, human institutions, may 
be very imposing, inspiring something akin to 
wonder, but their instability will soon be apparent. 
They may have a long or short existence, without 
anything more than human being found in their 
constitution. 

Arianism at one time threatened the Church much 
more seriously than Lutheranism ; yet after its 
apparent successes, its decadence was felt, the number 
of its adherents gradually diminished, and if a few 
of their descendants still profess the doctrines of 
Arius in the East, it only shows how tenaciously 
man may cling to heresy. 

Luther assailed the Church that successfully 
resisted the attacks of Arius, that withstood the 
religious storms of the centuries intervening between 
the ages of Arius and Luther ; he assailed it with 
the design of a complete overthrow. How vain the 
attempt! In the century of its origin, in almost 
the lifetime of its author, Lutheranism attained its 
limits. The signs of its disintegration are not 
wanting ; for, far from extending its boundaries, it 
is losing ground even in the land of its birth, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


205 


whilst the Church it sought to subvert has shown 
her superhuman vitality with renewed vigor, in the 
prosecution of the commission divinely committed 
to her to convert the nations, regaining lost ground, 
whilst extending the limits of her fold in new lands, 
till finally she accomplishes that mission, the con- 
quest of the world for the Saviour of men. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Calvinism, or Presbyterianism. 

HEN Luther had already acquired celebrity as 



" the leader of a great religious movement in 
Germany and the north, a young man of much 
ability, John Calvin, appeared in France, eager for 
no less fame than followed the German doctor’s 
career. Either proposed to himself and his fol- 
lowers the same final object, the pulling down, 
physically and mentally, of the Church of all ages, 
together with the erection of a structure as a substi- 
tute, manifesting its distinction from the other by 
its peculiar principles. Their dissimilar characters 
may be said to have borne the reflection of these 
principles. Luther, with a choleric temperament, 
daring to a degree, not denying his senses their 
gratification, operated in the open to win success to 
his campaign. Calvin, on the other hand, of a cold, 
phlegmatic temperament, austere in appearance, 
giving little indication of indulging the sensual 
appetite, concocted his plans and manoeuvred for 
their success in secret. Luther began his campaign 
by attacking and gaining a portion of the lower and 
middle classes of the Church, rising to the position 


206 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 207 

and repute of a demagogue. Calvin aimed at 
nobler game ; shrewd, and calculating the immense 
gain it would be to his cause to have some of the 
highest class, even of royal rank, he approached 
with skill and adroitness the ruler of France. The 
far-reaching design being penetrated, his temerity 
caused him a hasty flight into Switzerland, where 
he found suitable material in the Alpine inhabitants 
for ingrafting his doctrine. Here other authors of 
peculiar principles had labored before him. Calvin 
perceived that Zwingli’s principles had a strong hold 
of the Swiss mind. His shrewdness and general 
ability enabled Calvin to supplant the doctrines of 
all predecessors by his own. In a short time he 
had acquired so much influence among the inhabi- 
tants of Geneva as to obtain the highest position, 
civil as well as religious, in the little republic. 

In the office of chief magistrate, Calvin developed 
rapidly into a type of ruler unexpected, unappreci- 
ated. Those dissenting from his religious opinions 
were treated with great severity. If, in time past, 
the Pope could awe kings and emperors who might 
violate the moral law, or fail to fulfil their part in 
the mutual duties of the ruler and his subjects, 
Calvin could coerce, by punishment or the fear of 
it, into abandonment of opposition those dissent- 
ing from his opinions, political or religious. The 
advancement of an alien and a refugee to the first 
office in the country affording him an asylum, can 
scarcely be an actual occurrence pleasing to all. If 


208 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the person attaining to such an unusual honor show 
a character unsympathetic, severe, unmerciful to 
those differing from him in those things in which 
men often differ, viz., politics and religion, it would 
be strange if his throne were comfortable, or if his 
subjects did not endeavor to free themselves from 
such an undesirable master. Opposition from the 
Genevese might reasonably be expected. It accu- 
mulated such strength, and reached such an extent, 
as to place Calvin’s faction in a minority in the 
little Alpine republic. Calvin had to yield the 
reigns of government, and seek safety in flight. 

In this second exile, he watched the course of 
events in the troubled state in which he hoped to 
see the adoption of his principles enforced, and his 
party completely victorious. His expectations were 
not altogether disappointed. After three years of 
exile, Calvin, finding the tide of popular opinion 
turned in his favor, entered the Genevese capital, 
with the determination to rule with increased rigor, 
to enforce his doctrine on all who came under his 
sway. In his limited success, he found no little 
satisfaction in the humiliation of his opponents, for 
his own bitter days of banishment. 

When Calvin had assured himself of a durable 
supremacy of his teaching in the republic, he made 
Geneva the nursery for his disciples, who should 
thence propagate the seed of Calvinism into other 
nations. The harsh features, however, of his doc- 
trine greatly opposed its acceptance, except by 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


209 


people of a phlegmatic temperament. The emis- 
saries of Luther’s great rival poured into France, 
and began their propaganda with alacrity. Here 
their impetuous assault on the Catholic Church 
caused much commotion. The immense weight of 
royal support to their efforts impelled them to seek 
adherents from the first class in the state, as well as 
laboring for the establishment of Calvinism as the 
dominant national religion. The reigning monarch, 
Charles IX., being in his minority, opposing fac- 
tions of the nobles strove for supremacy in the 
kingdom, thereby to be in a position to influence 
and even control the actions of the royal minor, 
moulding his character according to their own 
political and religious principles. 

The facility with which such a moulding of the 
youthful royal mind can be effected is convincingly 
demonstrated by actual cases in the same age. 
Edward VI., of England, was denied the religious 
training appointed by his dying parent, Henry 
VIIT., who, notwithstanding his own wandering 
from the true faith, yet wished his son to be brought 
up in the Catholic faith. The guardians appointed 
to the royal youth promised compliance with the 
king’s wish ; but they never fulfilled it, Edward 
being brought up in the religion of the Church of 
England established by law. The religious training 
of James I., of England, affords another example. 
Deprived of his Catholic mother, Elizabeth, queen 
of England, found it easy to have him instructed 
14 


210 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


in the principles of the Church of England, and 
brought up in the practice of her own religion. 
With the practical lesson, moreover, in these turbid 
times, of the potency of the sovereign, in the person 
of Henry VIII., of England, to abolish the system 
of religion followed by all England since it came 
to the knowledge of Christianity by the preaching 
of St. Augustine and his forty companions, in the 
sixth century, it needs no explanation to show why 
the Calvinists of France were so anxious to be aided 
by the supreme power in the state to eradicate the 
Catholic and supplant it by the Presbyterian form 
of worship. 

They had already gained many supporters among 
the princes and nobles. The Bourbon prince, the 
able Prince of Cond6, the Admiral Coligny and 
many others were ready to draw the sword for the 
overthrow of Catholicism and the establishment of 
Calvinism or some form of worship in imitation of 
their neighbors, the English and the Germans. 
The Duke de Guise stood firm in the faith of his 
fathers ; he was the acknowledged leader of the 
Catholics. 

The Calvinists, or Huguenots, the French term for 
the followers of Calvin, found an insuperable barrier 
to influencing the young King iu the maternal soli- 
citude of Catherine de Medici, guarding all ap- 
proaches to her son. 

It was a time of dark intrigue. The Huguenots 
held secret meetings; they entered into a conspiracy 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


211 


at Amboise against the existing monarchical rule. 
Desecrated churches, pillaged cathedrals, massacres 
of the inhabitants in different places, marked the 
violent course of the Huguenots. What power was 
there to stem this torrent, with princes and nobles 
directing its course? Royalty was in a desperate 
state, and desperate action was judged necessary to 
maintain the established government and put an 
end to disorder. 

Then followed the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s 
day, A. D. 1572; a blow to the Huguenots, from 
which they never recovered. Yet several attempts 
were made to propagate their doctrine throughout 
France, but the vast majority of the French re- 
mained faithful to the Church. The existence of 
Calvinism in France may be expressed as an inter- 
mittent war, the last incident of which was the siege 
of Rochelle, A. D. 1682. 

Here the Huguenots made their final stand against 
royal authority. Cardinal Richelieu, the prime 
minister for Louis XIV., had the satisfaction to 
see all danger from religious trouble disappear with 
the capture of Rochelle, the last stronghold of the 
Huguenots. Henceforth they are hardly noticeable 
as an element in the entire population of France. 

France was not the only theatre of the labors of 
Calvin’s active disciples ; in Germany, the attempt 
to disseminate Calvinism met with little or no suc- 
cess. Though many of its principles were identical 
with those of Lutheranism, yet all were not so. 


212 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


When one differed with Luther in one tenet, he 
might hope for no religious commendation from the 
greatest of religious innovators; hence, there existed 
no amity between his followers and those of John 
Calvin. The Calvinists, therefore, diverted their 
course from the barren lands of Germany, in search 
of more congenial soil for depositing the seed of 
their new gospel. 

Holland offered the most pleasing invitation. 
There the missionaries from Geneva experienced 
little difficulty in the prosecution of their endeavors 
to gain adherents to the new doctrine, for, although 
all the Dutch did not embrace it, yet many did, 
and what afforded them the most cheerful hope for 
the conversion of the rest w^s that the head of 
the state, the Prince of Orange, strongly supported 
it, fostering its propagation and adoption by his 
subjects. 

Thus, the hostile treatment of Calvinism by the 
French was the more easily borne, by those at the 
head of it, at least, by its rapid success in Holland, 
with bright prospects in the future. 

The land where Calvinism made its greatest, its 
most complete conquest, is Scotland. Even Geneva 
must yield precedence, in territorial extent and in 
the number of members also, to her Scottish off- 
spring. Scotland was in a very unsettled condition 
at the time when the doctrines of Luther and 
Calvin set the minds of continentals in fury against 
each other. It had been governed for some years 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


213 


by the widowed Queen of James V., until her 
daughter Mary should be of age to rule the king- 
dom. This daughter, known in history as Mary, 
Queen of Scots, had been espoused to the dauphin 
of France, known as Henry II. 

What would be the result of this union, it would 
be futile to assert, but in political eventualities, at 
least, its significance could not be in any phase 
ignored by England’s ruler. Henry died before 
attaining to his majority. It might be an occasion 
for rejoicing to the Court of England, for by it the 
royal couch of England was relieved of a hideous 
political nightmare. 

The death of her regent mother recalled Mary 
from her brilliant position at the Court of France, 
where, on account of her high mental development, 
and graceful conduct, she had gained the admira- 
tion of all, to steer the Scottish ship of state in 
the worst of storms, a political-religious revolution. 
Hers was truly a pitiable condition. Young, beau- 
tiful, ennobled by her rare mental attainments, as 
well as by royal rank, she found herself suddenly 
surrounded by a heterogeneous nobility, regarding, 
for the most part, self-interest in their mutual rela- 
tions, some of whom were scarcely less powerful, in 
the number of military followers, than the Queen 
of all Scotland. Dynastic stability had but recently 
manifested signs of durability throughout Europe. 
The Wars of the Roses, leading to that of England, 
were fresh in the memory of Englishmen. To 


214 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Scotland this stability was never to come. The 
Scottish people loved their young Queen, but the 
common people were mere instruments in the hands 
of their masters, the nobles, and these were dis- 
united. 

The inflammable material of Scottish dissensions 
required but the application of the torch to ignite 
it. John Knox, for some time exiled from Scotland, 
by the revocation of his sentence appeared in haste 
in his distracted country. Being an admirer of the 
doctrines contrary to Catholicity, he had eagerly 
imbibed, in his term of exile, the Calvinian princi- 
ples which, when he found the door open to his 
native country, he spread broadcast over the land. 
Then were re-enacted the doleful scenes that charac- 
terized the Huguenots’ course in France. In the 
meantime the adherents of Mary fought their last 
battle unsuccessfully at Langside, near Glasgow, 
against the disloyal nobles, May 12, 1568. 

The vehement harangues of Knox incited his 
hearers to the effacement of everything Catholic 
in the land. As a result of his fiery denunciations 
against Catholicity, the Catholic worship was abol- 
ished by the Scottish Parliament in A. D. 1560, and 
the Presbyterian form of faith established instead. 

Knox eclipsed all his contemporaries in the violent 
means applied to overthrow the Church that stood 
since the time that Caledonia from a state of barba- 
rism entered into the Christian fold. His character 
is tersely expressed by the historic representation of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


215 


the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. 
St. Paul, the most fiery of the Apostles, propagated 
the Gospel otherwise. He did not instigate his 
audiences to pull down temples of the heathen gods. 
He did not move his hearers by passionate harangues 
to demolish the Jewish Synagogue. He confined 
himself to the use of convincing arguments to show 
the falsity of other religions and the truth of the 
one he preached. But his method of establishing 
the Church of Christ did not suit the religious 
innovators of the sixteenth century, although they 
professed themselves disciples of the same Divine 
Master. England was not pleased with the peculiar 
form of worship of the Scotch, wishing to see her 
own, or Episcopalianism, established instead. 

Hence there followed no little trouble between 
the two countries, after the accession of the later 
Stuarts to the united rule of England and Scotland. 
The Scotch stubbornly resisted the attempt to coerce 
them in their religious belief. So the dispute ended 
in the Scotch retaining their religious doctrine, while 
the Church of England, or Episcopalian Church, was 
established for the benefit of those whose religious 
sentiments tended thereto. 

Scotland may be considered the ultimate bounds 
of Calvinism in Europe. These bounds in that 
continent have scarcely moved since the days of 
Calvin and Knox. 

Like most other Christian denominations, Calvin- 
ism, or Presbyterianism, in later times found new 


216 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


fields for its propagation in North America. But, 
except this, as proof of its extension, there is almost 
none. 

All non-Catholic Christian bodies have their dis- 
tinctive, peculiar principles. That of Calvinism, or 
Presbyterianism, relates to the predestination of man 
without merit by the Supreme Being, to a state of 
endless happiness, or eternal misery. Who can de- 
scribe the gloomy effect of such doctrine on the mind? 

Luther’s doctrine cheers the blackest sinner who 
believes in it, assuring him that all his crimes cannot 
condemn him, if he has sufficient faith in Jesus 
Christ. 

Calvin can hold out no bright hope to the sinner, 
nor indeed to the virtuous, for both may receive the 
same sentence of eternal damnation. This doctrine 
seems to be one of the evil results of private in- 
terpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. There are 
passages in these, containing reference to predesti- 
nation, from which it is possible for a person, de- 
pending upon his intellect, to draw erroneous con- 
clusions. If Calvin, or any other, drew the conclu- 
sion of absolute predestination from the remarkable 
expression of St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans 
(ch. vm, 29-30), treating of the operations of the 
Supreme Being towards man, he would do so from 
his own fallible judgment. If absolute predestina- 
tion be admitted, then also must be admitted the 
unmercifulness of God ; His assertions, that He 
desires the salvation of man, as mockeries, and all 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


217 


good works in vain. But the vast majority of 
Christians believe in the mercy of God to man, 
and His desire to save him from the eternal pun- 
ishment due to his sins. They believe also in the 
necessity, as well as the potency, of good works. 
The reason for this belief is given intuitively by the 
dictates of right reason, but more definitely and 
authoritatively for entrance into the kingdom of 
heaven, by the words of Christ in some of His 
discourses. 

Taking one of these, His implicit condemnation 
of the works of the Scribes and Pharisees, speaking 
to His disciples, He says: “Amen, I tell you that 
unless your justice abounds more than that of the 
Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the 
kingdom of heaven ” ( Matt ., y, v. 20). St. James 
asserts, in the plainest terms, the absolute necessity 
of good works for salvation : that faith itself is 
dead without them. The Apostle’s words are : 
“ For even as the body without the spirit is dead, 
so also faith without works is dead ” (Ep. St. James , 
ch. ii, v. 26). 

The easy inference from these passages is that 
exclusion from the kingdom results from the want 
of sufficient good works. From them, also, it may 
be inferred that no one is condemned arbitrarily, or 
without sufficient reason, by the Judge of all men : 
that is, no one is predestinated to a state in eternity 
without the concurrence of his free will, manifested 
in the nature of his works. 


218 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Though it cannot be truthfully imputed to God 
that He predestinates anyone to everlasting misery 
or happiness, irrespective of his works, it may, 
nevertheless, be asserted that He predestines, as a 
sequence to His foreknowledge of each one’s good- 
ness or wickedness, resulting from the good use and 
the misuse or rejection of the means afforded to 
all for acquiring salvation. Admitting the divine 
omniscience, this cannot be considered difficult of 
intelligence, whilst it may be satisfactorily argued 
that no injustice exists in such an appointment of 
man’s eternal state. Its feeble representation may 
be perceived in an assumed temporal case. 

If it be supposed that a father, having two sons, 
desires to make them equally happy by bestowing 
on them, at a certain age, a large portion of his 
wealth, ample to supply all their wants for life and 
its lawful pleasures, exacting, however, fulfilment 
of a certain condition for the reception of the gift, 
viz., obedience to all his commands, and the leading 
of a good moral life. One of the sons fulfils as 
well as he is able all the conditions, and not merely 
for the sake of the reward, but because he owes it 
as a filial duty to obey and honor his parent. The 
other, when the opportunity is afforded, disregards 
his father’s injunctions, becomes lax in morals, fre- 
quents bad company contrary to the known wishes 
of his parent, and squanders in the meantime the 
money he receives for defraying the expenses inci- 
dental to his state in life. The father, deploring 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


219 


the waywardness of his son, repeatedly remonstrates 
with him, that he may amend his life and not bring 
dishonor to his nearest relations nor plunge himself 
into irremediable misery. All expostulation proves 
fruitless, the affectionate parent sees no amendment, 
but rather the prodigal going from bad to worse. 
He determines, therefore, to sever all friendly rela- 
tions with the undutiful son, revokes the conditional 
promise of enriching him for life, casts him forth 
penniless on the world where, the slave of his 
passions, he exists, the remainder of his days, in the 
most abject misery. This is but a faint representa- 
tion in a temporal case of a spiritual one, and passing 
the bounds of time, even into eternity, where God 
predestines the wicked. There is this difference 
in the comparison, that whereas the motive, the 
knowledge of the earthly father, which caused him 
to cut off his perverse son from the intended 
inheritance, or some of the paternal property, has 
been acquired by experience in trying his son, the 
Heavenly Father has in perfection, from His infinite 
knowledge of all things, and therefore of the future 
as of the present and the past. This infinite 
knowledge does not affect the freedom of the human 
will, the final adhesion of which to good or to evil 
acquires for it a corresponding reward of everlast- 
ing happiness or eternal misery. This meaning of 
divine predestination, so consonant to reason, is the 
contrast of that contained in Calvin’s doctrine. 


220 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Christian doctrine, taught by the true Church of 
Christ, though requiring belief in revealed truth 
exceeding comprehension by the mind in man’s 
earthly state, demands no such faith in anything 
contrary to right reason. It does the greatest vio- 
lence to his reason to require man to believe in the 
possibility of his hateful condemnation to a state of 
eternal punishment by the Supreme Being, without 
guilt incurred by the sin or offence committed by 
an action of the free will. 

Man’s reasonable hope to escape the punishment 
of hell, and to attain to the bliss of heaven, rests 
upon the infinite truth, mercy and justice of God. 
These divine attributes find frequent expression in 
the Sacred Scriptures, for the encouragement of all 
fo lead a life of faith and sound morality. “As I 
live,” saith the Lord, “ I will not the death of the 
sinner, but that he be converted and live.” “ The 
Son of Man came not to call the just, but sinners, 
to repentance. I will render to each one according 
to his works.” 

What is the meaning of these and of many similar 
passages of Scripture, if man, according to Calvin- 
ism, notwithstanding his faith and his repentance, 
manifested by the reformation of his life, be liable 
to eternal reprobation with evidence of the most piti- 
less mockery, the most hateful deception practised 
upon him? 

Whatever other pleasing features such a religion 
as Calvinism, or Presbyterianism, may have, this 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


221 


repulsive doctrine of predestination alone would 
mark it as not of the Church instituted by the 
God-man, who came on earth to enable man, by 
faith and good works, to attain to. the object for 
which he was created, the never-ending happiness 
of the kingdom of heaven. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


The Anglican Church — Episcopalianism. 

TIIHILST Lutheranism and Calvinism exulted 
’’ in the ceremonies of their inauguration on 
the continent of Europe, as rival churches to the 
Catholic Church, from which they had separated, 
another, almost simultaneously, sprang into exist- 
ence in the southern part of the Island of Great 
Britain. 

The English, like many other nations, have experi- 
enced the vicissitude of national life effected by the 
conqueror’s will. The Angles, after the Romans, 
seem to be the first historic invaders of the island. 
Invited by some of the Britons for protection, as the 
English much later were invited by the Prince of 
Leinster against his countrymen, they bade adieu to 
Saxony, their native land, and sailed for the Island 
of Great Britain. Being of a warlike disposition, 
they overcame the native Britons, against whom 
they were sent, and refused to leave the island, when 
the object of their expedition had been accom- 
plished; desiring to make so fertile a land their 
future home. In a short time, they extended their 
rule over the greater part of the island, forcing the 
222 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


223 


natives into the western part, called Wales. The 
country parcelled out among them was known as 
the Heptarchy. They, in turn, were vanquished by 
the Danes, who overran the country. By the skill 
and prudence of King Alfred, the good fortune of 
the Angles revived. His successes over the Danes 
infused hope and courage into the minds of his 
followers. The Danes were put on the defensive, 
forced to leave the country, or submit to the condi- 
tions of Alfred. 

The last and successful invasion of England was 
made in the eleventh century by the Normans under 
their leader, William, Duke of Normandy, after- 
wards William I., of England. Though fighting 
bravely under their King Harold, the Angles suf- 
fered, at Hastings, an irreparable defeat. Hence- 
forth the Norman element rules all England. It 
has continued since in the nobles, or English 
aristocracy, to hold the mass of the people at its 
disposal. The reason for this is to be found in the 
docility of the Anglo-Saxon character, or rather 
his devotedness to his acknowledged master. It is 
to this characteristic submissiveness that must be 
ascribed the pitiable condition into which nearly the 
whole nation fell in the trying times of religious 
agitation in the sixteenth century. 

From Henry VIII., of England, much for the 
benefit of the Church might be expected. He gave 
evidence of his religious tendency by entering on 


224 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the studies necessary to qualify the aspirant to the 
priesthood. 

The death of his brother Arthur, heir to the 
throne, caused Henry to abandon his ecclesiastical 
studies for the dazzling throne enhanced by the 
mighty power of the king. In the early part of 
his reign Henry’s character deserved commendation. 
He was not devoid of chivalrous sentiments; sensi- 
tive of the nation’s honor, he maintained its respect 
and dignity among foreign powers. At home his 
youth and genial disposition, in mingling with 
others on festive or other occasions of amusement, 
gained him the affection of his subjects. 

For seventeen years he enjoyed domestic happi- 
ness with his virtuous consort, Catharine of Aragon. 
Henry was pre-eminently a man of pleasure. The 
delicacies of the table, the luxuries of the banquet 
and ad libitum at private repasts, ministered to his 
sensual appetites. These, as is universally asserted 
by the wise, as well as by all moralists, unless kept 
well in restraint, will ultimately usurp the place of 
reason, and dominate the person who has so basely 
catered for them and become their slave. Such 
may be said to have been Henry’s experience. The 
constitution cannot long bear the strain of sensual 
indulgence without moderation. With increase of 
age, Henry became corpulent, morose, whilst the 
obsequiousness of those surrounding him from an 
early age made it hazardous for any man of self- 
respect to expostulate or manfully maintain his 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


225 


own opinion, contrary to that of the king, in 
matters of dispute. Hence, the king had. things 
generally as he pleased. 

Henry was yet a young man when Luther 
attacked the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and 
strove to supplant them by his own. The king had 
no sympathy with the great religious innovator. 
Having an inclination to polemics, as well as to 
show his sentiments on the religious agitation of the 
time, he wrote vigorously against Luther and his 
novel principles. This royal enthusiastic defense 
of the Catholic faith gained the appreciation of the 
Pope, who conferred on the King of England the 
glorious title of Defender of the Faith, which the 
sovereigns of England have ever since retained as 
one of their privileged titles, although separated 
from the Catholic Church. 

Though in his writings against Luther’s prin- 
ciples Henry gives evidence of his sincere attach- 
ment to the Catholic Church, it is quite possible 
that the anti-Catholic doctrinal opinions widely 
disseminated by Luther and other noted seceders 
from the Catholic Church produced their disturb- 
ing influence on the king’s mind, contributing to 
his adoption of that peculiar position in religion 
which he afterwards held even till his death. What 
Henry wished was not so much novelty in religion, 
or immaterial substance, but rather what appeared 
in the corporal or material form. 

15 


226 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Even to a king, the repeated exhibition of the 
same objects, however attractive, the repetition of 
delightful feasts, the continuous strains of the most 
excelling music, will in time pall on the mind, glut 
the senses of him who sets no bounds to his worldly 
pleasures, nor aspires after those true celestial joys 
promised to those who deny themselves the temporal 
joys of earth, that they may experience those of 
heaven and for eternity. 

Henry’s love of novelty extended not only to 
things lawful, but also to the unlawful. The virtues 
of a faithful wife, his consort for seventeen years, 
were powerless over the carnal-minded king, who 
placed his affections on a younger, and in the eyes 
of Henry, a very attractive lady of the court, a 
maid-of-honor to the Queen; this was the unfortu- 
nate Anne Boleyn. Having conceived the illicit 
passion, he desired to consummate a new matri- 
monial alliance. It was in attempting this that 
the trouble of his life began. Henry knew that 
the bonds of marriage once consummated are insev- 
erable, according to the teaching of the Catholic 
Church. But he thought that by alleging plausible 
reasons for the invalidity of his marriage with 
Catherine of Aragon, he might succeed in obtaining 
a divorce. 

Henry was not without resource in the difficulties 
that beset his amorous course. He pleaded his alleged 
qualms of conscience, in having, as wife, his deceased 
brother’s spouse. He applied to Rome for a sever- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


227 


ance of the matrimonial bond. The Pope found no 
valid reasons to accede to the King’s request. How- 
ever, he appointed a commission of Cardinals Wolsey 
and Compeggio, to investigate the matter before 
giving a final decision. Henry, meanwhile, sent 
the case to the universities of Europe for their 
opinions, which he hoped would be favorable to 
him. But in vain, the universities decided against 
him. Henry, however, was not to be balked. The 
dilatoriness of the commission exasperated him, so 
he turned for consolation and satisfaction to others, 
who would not fail to comply with his wishes. 

In 1532 the Archbishopric of Canterbury, the 
primatial See of the country, became vacant by the 
death of Archbishop Warham. This incident af- 
forded the king the opportunity of effecting, with 
the appearance of the sanction of religion, the two- 
fold project upon which he had set his mind. There 
were royal minions to be found in the Church as in 
the state. Henry created a sensation by usurping 
the Pope’s office of appointing bishops, to vacant 
bishoprics. Into the primatial See of Canterbury 
he thrust Thomas Cranmer, who rewarded his 
royal master by the promptness and completeness 
with which he disposed of the king’s matrimonial 
case. The royally-made Archbishop cited Henry 
and Queen Catherine to appear before his court. 
No forensic effort was required to show Cranmer 
the course he should pursue. The marriage, which 
had lasted more than seventeen years, and of which 


228 


GUIDE TO TEUE KELIGION. 


five children were born, was pronounced null. The 
king’s matrimonial union to Anne Boleyn was imme- 
diately publicly announced ; they had been married 
clandestinely some time previously. When the 
Pope, Clement VII., learned of Cranmer’s summary 
proceedings, he condemned his action, reversed the 
decision and maintained the validity of the first 
marriage. The action of the Pope enraged the 
king, giving the final impetus to his hostility to the 
Pope. Henry declared the supremacy of the Pope 
in England at an end, proclaimed himself supreme 
in church as well as state ; exacting from all his 
subjects the acknowledgment of his supremacy 
under the penalty of treason. This was the begin- 
ning of what is known and exists as the Anglican 
Church. The bishops and clergy did not want the 
change, but protestation and opposition from them 
would be met with such arbitrary measures ema- 
nating from the court as would deter all but the 
bravest from attempting to defend the faith of their 
fathers. Henry simply terrorized all England. 
From the highest to the lowest in the realm, all 
were subservient, with a few noble exceptions. The 
most nauseously obsequious of all was, perhaps, the 
man who should be foremost in opposing the king’s 
tyrannical course, and in admonishing him of the 
evils consequent to a life of iniquity. The days 
had passed when an Archbishop of Canterbury had 
the courage to withstand a more powerful monarch 
than Henry ; but that monarch, with all his faults, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


229 


was not a despot of the Tudor type. But then, 
Cranmer was the creature of the king, and who 
might look for courage or solicitude for the main- 
tenance of any kind of faith in the unamiable 
character of the man so expressively portrayed in 
few words by Macauley. 

Henry, by his usurpation of the highest spiritual 
office in the Church in England, became virtually 
pope, as well as king. The mutilation and trans- 
mutation of Catholic doctrine, rites and ceremonies, 
soon became apparent to the masses. They mur- 
mured, but had to suppress and stifle the expression 
of their disapprobatipn. There were, however, in 
some parts of the country, both north and south, 
hostile demonstrations against the religious innova- 
tions. These disloyal subjects of the royal pope 
placed their faith above everything. They were soon 
vanquished by troops sent against them, and their 
ghastly heads hung up in various parts, dangling 
in the air, gave a dreadful warning to all who should 
have the temerity to assert their religious belief, 
contrary to the royal pleasure. 

The noble, peerless conduct of Sir Thomas Moore, 
Lord High Chancellor, the highest official in the 
kingdom, and that of Cardinal Fisher, in refusing 
to accept the king’s supremacy in the Church, should 
have inspired the rest of the great men of England 
to resist the incipient despotic rule. These exalted 
dignitaries lost their lives, as many other distin- 
guished persons did, by the command of the tyrant, 


230 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


but, in return, obtained the priceless martyr’s crown. 
As disease and decrepitude overtook the king, more 
from sensual indulgence than from old age, his 
moroseness, severity, and intolerance of opposition 
to his will, increased in proportion. None of his 
intimate friends could rely with safety on his friend- 
ship, none, even of the most powerful of the nobles, 
could be free from the apprehension of hearing that 
he was doomed to the dreaded block. 

The crouching attitude of all classes turned the 
king into a veritable monster. Many thousands of 
his subjects, who had the courage to retain their con- 
scientious belief, despite the royal decree, ended their 
lives on the block, the gallows, and at the burning 
stake. If it be true as recorded in history, that 
Henry sent into eternity by violent deaths, upwards 
of 70,000 persons of all classes, from the duke to 
the peasant, it must be admitted that for deeds of 
blood and human sacrifice, outside of actual warfare, 
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find his 
equal in all history. The Scyllan and other Roman 
proscriptions decrease in their enormity, in compari- 
son with the black list of Henry. It would be erro- 
neous, however, to suppose that the king’s ire was 
kindled only against Catholics. Catholics and non- 
Catholics perished side by side ; the former for deny- 
ing the king’s supremacy in the Church, the latter 
for denying the real presence of the Lord in the 
Sacrament of the Eucharist. Henry’s belief found 
no type in the then-existing creeds, nor has it in any 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


231 


of the Christian denominations which have sprung 
into existence since. 

Whatever religious creed he adhered to was of 
very indefinite form. He retained some of the 
principles of Catholic doctrine, others were supplied 
from the royal mind and enforced by the convincing 
means of physical power. It is evident that the 
introduction of Anglicanism to supplant Catholicism 
must be ascribed not to the conviction that the latter 
was erroneous, and some other form of religion 
orthodox, but to the anger and hostility of a king, 
swayed by passion, against the principal dignitaries 
of the Church because he found them non-compliant 
with his wish to sanction an unholy, sinful matri- 
monial union. Henry had no sympathy for the 
religious innovators of the sixteenth century. He 
held little, if anything, in common with them. 
Yet he could not stay the huge wave of the religious 
revolt that approached the English coast from the 
continent, and finally swept over the kingdom, 
depositing the germs of strange doctrines. There 
were not wanting zealous missionaries of the new 
creeds finding numerous adherents on the continent 
to attempt their propagation in England, even with 
the prospect of personal danger. But the national 
spirit asserted itself against foreign importations. 

There were some men around Henry who knew 
how to humor his dangerous whims. They foresaw, 
what might be apparent to the close observer, that 
release from the king’s rancorous disposition, aided 


232 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


by his sensual, luxurious indulgence, would by his 
early death rid the country of many woes. They had 
a prospective king in the boy Edward, Henry’s son, 
whom they had reason to believe they could mould, 
both religiously and politically, according to their 
hearts’ desire. The king, however, approaching his 
end, exacted from the guardians whom he had ap- 
pointed for his son, until he should become of age, 
a promise to bring him up in the Catholic faith. 
It appears from this fact that, shortly before his 
death, he awoke to a sense of his wrong doings, 
realizing, at length, the calamitous nature of sepa- 
rating from the Catholic Church, and wished to 
remedy the evil by restoring the nation to the bosom 
of the Church through the royal power and sound 
Catholicity of Edward. How vain the hope ! how 
ineffectual such a promise ! What faith could be 
placed in the word of those who, to save their lives 
from the displeasure of a dreaded monarch, might 
regard duplicity a necessity. 

Not long after Henry ceased to live, when he had 
been summoned from mortal proscriptions to appear 
for judgment before the King of Kings, the Judge 
of all men, of Whom it is written : “ Revenge is 
Mine and I will repay,” Duke Somerset, the chief 
guardian, ignored his promise to the king, and caused 
the boy-king to be instructed, not in the Catholic doc- 
trine, but in a mongrel form of faith, which had not 
yet received definite shape. This forms the basis of 
the new national Church. Its tenets and principles 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


233 


were defined in A. D. 1562, from which date it is 
termed the Anglican Church. The sum of the faith 
of its members was declared in that year, by the com- 
position of the Thirty-nine Articles ; more recently 
in A. D. 1662, Anglican doctrine appeared in a more 
elaborate, and more comprehensive * compilation, 
comprised in what is called the Book of Common 
Prayer. Since that time, it has been passing through 
the interminable phases characterizing all Christian 
denominations having their origin in the religious 
revolt of the sixteenth century. Anglicanism has 
not divested herself of all that is Catholic. She 
has retained many of the principles and ceremonies 
of the Church of all ages. She believes in, and 
administers the Sacraments of Baptism and the 
Eucharist. Since she believes in Episcopacy, and 
strives to trace, with pride, though unsuccessfully, 
a continuous line of prelacy to the Apostles, it is 
reasonable to conclude that she admits Orders as a 
Sacrament, or regards them somewhat similar to a 
Sacrament. She differs from both Lutheranism and 
Calvinism ; from the former, principally concerning 
the circumstantial presence of Christ in the Holy 
Eucharist, the Anglicans rejecting consubstantia- 
tion ; with the latter, she disagrees on the subject 
of Christ’s atonement for sin, the Calvinists, or 
Presbyterians, believing in only the particular effi- 
cacy of Christ’s death, or that He died for only a 
part of the human race, while the Anglicans retain 
almost the identical Catholic doctrine that, though 


234 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


all may not be saved, yet, the Saviour of men died 
for all. 

The condemning characteristic of Anglicanism, 
not indeed particular as belonging to her alone, but 
common to her with the other seceding bodies from 
the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, is the 
rejection of a living authority established by Christ 
for the guidance of all men to eternal salvation, with 
the assumption of the Scriptures contained in what 
is called the Old and the New Testaments, as the 
absolute guide to salvation, to be interpreted by 
man’s fallible judgment. 

No religion can be stable whose principles are 
unstable. As man’s judgment is not unchangeable 
on many subjects, it is not difficult to perceive that 
it could find a labyrinth in many passages of sacred 
Scriptures which are difficult to be understood, as 
St. Peter characterizes the writings of St. Paul. 
It is admitted as a maxim that, in all social bodies, 
such as the Anglican Church is, the majority rules. 
But as the opinions of the majority fluctuate when 
applied to their religious belief, their religion must 
necessarily vary in accordance. This cannot be said 
of the religion which Christ established for the 
salvation of souls ; for whatever is necessary unto 
salvation cannot admit of different interpretations, 
or its definition cannot vary. 

Regarding the origin of Anglicanism, it cannot 
be asserted, with truth, that the masses of England’s 
population accepted it of their own free will, unin- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


235 


fluenced by the fear of punishment if they continued 
to profess Catholicity; yet it would be untrue to 
say that they did not assent to it with their wills, 
for no earthly power can deprive man of the free- 
dom of his will in religious belief. The exercise of 
that freedom, however, under autocratic or poly- 
archic tyranny, may cost him his earthly life ; but 
this is an insignificant sacrifice compared with the 
priceless reward of the kingdom of heaven, promised 
by Christ to those who shall remain faithful to the 
end. He expressly declares that whosoever shall 
deny Him before men, He (Christ) shall deny him 
before His Father in heaven. Hence, whoever 
renounces the Catholic faith, believing it to be the 
true faith, through the fear of earthly punishment, 
or the loss of earthly goods, the visible means of 
his support, denies Christ, and incurs the reprobation 
contained in the foregoing words, in substance those 
of Sacred Scripture. The English, therefore, who 
passed from Catholicism to Anglicanism, to save 
their lives or their property, are inexcusable. 

No man is worthy of the kingdom of heaven 
who is not willing to lay down his life, if neces- 
sary, for what he believes to be the true faith ; for 
Christ explicitly exacts this test of their fidelity 
from all His followers, in the event of extreme 
persecution by their enemies. 

It could not reasonably be expected that a people 
forced, either morally or physically, into a church, 
could have any sincere attachment to it, or devote 


236 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


themselves to its growth or maintenance. Hence, 
its dissolution cannot surprise anyone knowing the 
influence and power by which it came into exist- 
ence, which, when withdrawn from it, as the source 
of its maintenance, it must necessarily give place to 
another, more in harmony with the people’s aspira- 
tions after eternal life. 

The process of the disintegration of the Anglican 
Church began soon after its establishment by act 
of parliament as the national Church. In a brief 
period, the number of dissenters from it increased 
so rapidly as to form rival churches to that estab- 
lished by law. If the number of these dissenting 
bodies, viz. the Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, Con- 
gregationalists, Unitarians, etc., be subtracted from 
the population, together with the vast number who 
attend no church, who practise no religion, it will 
be found that Anglicanism can present but a very 
un imposing array of adherents. Its principal sup- 
porters are those whose interests are involved in its 
maintenance and in its fall. The great mass of the 
people have little concern about its existence, or non- 
existence. Hence it is a failure as a national Church. 
But it would be preposterous to regard it as the 
universal Church, the fold of Jesus Christ, into 
which all those destined for the kingdom of heaven 
must be gathered. It has some adherents in the 
sparsely settled colonies founded by England in 
Southern Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. 
Other denominations, with the Catholic Church 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


237 


also, claim their proportionate share of the inhabi- 
tants of these places. 

But there has been no attempt to convert the 
world to Anglicanism, or if there has, it was a most 
complete failure. Among the disintegrating elements 
of Anglicanism, a most remarkable one, and con- 
tinually augmenting, is that drifting towards the 
Church of their forefathers, the Catholic Church, the 
manifest fold of Christ. About the middle of the 
nineteenth century, there began at Oxford a religious 
movement, that soon spread consternation in the 
ranks of Anglicanism. Men distinguished for great- 
ness of mind, as well as prominent members of the 
Anglican clergy, experienced a religious thirst which 
they found the established Church unable to satiate. 
They devoted themselves to mutual enlightenment 
by keen discussions, while applying themselves assid- 
uously to a thorough investigation of what pertained 
to true Christianity. The result of their researches 
led some into the Catholic Church. Others, not find- 
ing the conviction sufficiently strong for such a 
course, remained in the established Church to meta- 
morphose it to such an extent as to make a pious 
Catholic almost excusable, who should find himself, 
by mistake, assisting at the celebrations or devotions 
in an Anglican Church of the progressive or liberal 
class, thinking he was in one of his own religion. 
This Catholicising tendency causes much disturbance 
throughout the entire Church, giving no little anxiety 
to the conservative portion, who wish to see the 


238 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


chasm between Anglicanism and Catholicism as wide 
as possible. Two most distinguished and talented 
members of the Anglican clergy found their way 
into the Catholic Church soon after the Oxford 
movement. These were Archdeacon Manning and 
Dr. Newman. These, many years after their con- 
version, became members of the College of Cardinals. 
They were the heads of a stream of converts which 
has flowed ever since with increasing volume, from 
the Anglican into the Catholic Church. 

There is the strongest evidence and no doubt can 
be entertained of the innate yearning of a vast 
portion of the Church of England for union with 
the Catholic Church, from which their forefathers 
were so violently separated in the sixteenth century. 
That this union may be consummated should be the 
prayer of every true follower of Jesus, manifesting 
his desire for the unity of the great Shepherd’s flock. 

In this and the three preceding chapters, the 
author of this work has confined himself to a con- 
sideration of the three religious creeds, or churches, 
formed by the great secessions from the Catholic 
Church, primarily caused by Luther’s revolt against 
that Church in the sixteenth century. There are 
other non-Catholic denominations, who rival in 
numerical strength the three churches already con- 
sidered. There are Methodists, Baptists, Episco- 
palians, Unitarians, Congregationalists, and others, 
some of which count the vast majority of their 
adherents in North America. But, as most of these 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


239 


are of recent origin, and issued from the three 
churches spoken of, retaining most of their prin- 
ciples, and but slightly differing from them, the 
particular consideration of them has been omitted, 
that, it is hoped, a profitable discourse may be had 
upon the depository of the true faith, and what con- 
stitutes the fundamental error of all non-Catholic 
Christian churches. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


The True Christian Church. 

OIMULTANEOUSLY with the establishment of 
^ Christianity by Christ, the Saviour of men, the 
Mosaic or Old Law ceased to exist as a complete 
operative law, binding to its observance for the 
attainment of salvation. 

In the formation and for the continuance of any 
social or religious body or community there are laws 
to be observed, deemed necessary for possessing the 
objects proposed for attainment by the members of 
such bodies. These occupy the place of rules by 
which the members know how to conduct themselves 
in avoiding what is prohibited, and performing what 
is prescribed as general or particular duties. Thus 
nations, for the general benefit of the inhabitants, and 
municipalities, for the particular benefit of the citi- 
zens, have their special laws. 

In the institution and for the propagation and 
continuance of Christianity, the absence of a written 
law is a most remarkable characteristic. To what 
should this absence be attributed? Not to any im- 
perfection in the divine ordination for man’s salva- 
tion. Not to the inability of Christ to conceive and 
240 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


241 


ordain a law; for he was God, as well as the most 
perfect of men. A little consideration of the aims 
and objects of Christianity, may suffice to lead to a 
satisfactory answer to the question. 

The aim of Christianity is the christianizing of 
all nations; its object, the salvation of mankind. 
As men will in the future, as they have in the past, 
exist in all ages till the end of the world, there 
exists the necessity for affording the means in all 
ages since the establishment of the Christian religion, 
to acquire this most important of all objects, man’s 
salvation ; consequently, the Christian Church where- 
in is taught the doctrine, by the observance of which 
the possession of eternal happiness is assured, must 
necessarily exist. Societies formed by men, having 
human welfare as their object, depend for their 
maintenance and success upon the use' of human 
means or instruments, one of which is a written 
law. 

The institution of the Christian religion tran- 
scends all merely human works; for its author, 
Jesus Christ, being God as well as man, infinitely 
excels all men ; hence, it cannot be included in the 
category of merely human works, nor can it be 
subject to the same means or requirements for its 
perennial existence, invincibility, and its asSlired 
victory over all the enemies of Christ. 

The continual training of the teaching element 
in Christ’s Church, whereby the members of each 
succession learn the doctrine from their living pre- 
16 


242 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


decessors, and imbibe their spirit, obviously renders 
it unnecessary to have a written law for their guid- 
ance in teaching sound doctrine, and for their general 
conduct. Though this should be admitted as a 
sufficient reason to account for the absence of written 
law by the Divine Founder of the Church, yet it 
is not the only reason nor the weightiest. If the 
viva voce law-giver of any nation or institution were 
ubiquitous and immortal, assuring the society of his 
constant guidance, there would evidently be no need 
of a written law. Christ has assured His Church 
of His omnipresent assistance in all ages, according 
to Sacred Scripture. Speaking to His disciples, 
before His ascent into heaven, He said : “ Going, 
therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you ; and behold I 
am with you all days, even to the consummation of 
the world” (St. Matt., ch. xxvm, v. 19-20). In 
another passage Christ, speaking of the Holy Ghost, 
says: “And I will ask the Father and He shall 
give you another paraclete that He may abide with 
you forever, the spirit of truth, whom the world 
cannot receive because it seeth Him not nor knoweth 
Him ; but you shall know Him because He shall 
abide with you, and shall be in you (St. John , 
ch. xiy, v. 16-17). From these passages it is evi- 
dent that both her divine Founder and the Third 
Person of the Blessed Trinity continually enlighten, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


243 


teach the necessary truth and guide the teaching body 
of the Church till the end of time. Therefore, the 
human means of a written law is not required, since 
the omnipresence of the spirit of truth replaces it, 
enlightening, to answer all questions, to decide all 
cases of doubt or dispute. 

It is of the greatest importance to all who are 
in doubt as to the true Christian Church, or who 
unprejudicedly search to find it, to know that Christ 
has so constituted His Church as to be thus taught 
and ruled by the traditionary ’ viva voce form of gov- 
ernment, rather than by the interpretation by the 
members of the hierarchy of the Church in their 
long series from the beginning of Christianity till 
the end of the world of one great written law, 
visibly issuing from Christ which might, in the 
lapse of time, be variously interpreted just as the 
contents of the four narratives by Sts. Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John are differently interpreted 
by the differing denominations of Christians. It is 
also of the same importance to understand that 
purity and integrity of doctrine are assured to 
Christ’s Church in this form of teaching and gov- 
ernment by the incessant fostering, protection, and 
guidance of the Church, by the spirit of truth and 
also by Christ, its founder. Bearing these truths in 
mind, and before answering the question, Which is 
the true Church of Christ ? it must be understood 
and admitted as an axiom, that there is but one true 
Church : for it is plainly stated by Christ, when 


244 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


speaking of the institution which He destined as a 
means for man’s salvation. Notably does He speak 
of it as a single institution or establishment, by the 
words He addressed to St. Peter, when the prince 
of the Apostles declared Him to be the Son of God : 
“And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it.” St. Paul in his 
epistle to the Ephesians, asserts the unity of the 
Church where he says, “One Lord, One Faith, One 
Baptism, One God, and Father of all,” ( Eph . iv, 
v. 1-5). 

It is unnecessary to adduce more Scriptural 
proofs, for it should be evident to every one ex- 
ercising the faculty of reason, that Christ cannot be 
the author of two or more forms of faith, differing 
essentially from each other ; for He is “ the way, 
the truth, and the life.” He cannot, therefore, be 
the author of two or more antagonistic doctrines for 
salvation, whereby man might be led astray. Ad- 
mitting then, as an indisputable truth, that there is 
but one true Church to which all hoping for salva- 
tion must adhere, the answer to the question, which 
of all the separate bodies claiming and professing 
to be the Church of Christ, is the true Christian 
Church? There are two courses, either of which 
may be pursued to give a satisfactory answer ; they 
may be termed the Catholic or religious method, and 
the historical or ordinary method of establishing the 
verification of any event in which men are con- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


245 


cerned. The Catholic Church teaches that the true 
Church of Christ has four marks or characteristics 
by which it may be known, viz., it is one, holy, 
Catholic, and Apostolic. It is one, because all its 
members profess the same faith, partake of the same 
Sacraments, and are all under one visible head, the 
Pope, successor to St. Peter, and vicar of Christ. 
Holiness is attributed to the Church, because Christ, 
her founder, is holy ; also, because it teaches a holy 
doctrine, and by reason of the conspicuous holiness 
of many of its members in all ages, from the incep- 
tion of Christianity by the promulgators of the 
Gospel. Catholic, or Universal, is applied to it, 
for, destined to save all willing to be saved, it 
necessarily exists in all ages and in all nations, un- 
less where the people have repelled it. 

The Church is termed Apostolic because it con- 
tinues in existence from the time of the Apostles, 
whom Christ commissioned to establish it in the 
various nations of the earth; so also it will continue 
to exist to the end of the world. Although this is 
a true characterization of the true Church, yet, if 
the last character be excepted, it might not be 
judged sufficiently convincing to those who have 
been nurtured from youth with the teachings of a 
doctrine differing from that of the Catholic Church. 
They might assert that unity is a character common 
to each separate church ; that it is not without 
virtuous and holy members. They might also 
assert the character of Catholicity, however un- 


246 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


warranted or disputable it may be. Hence they 
might not be willing to concede these as peculiar 
marks of any church. The historical method, the 
one commonly used for verifying any event or 
occurrence, seems the easier, the less liable to objec- 
tions and the strongest to bring conviction to the 
mind where uncertainty prevails. It may, therefore, 
be adopted to distinguish the true Church of Christ 
from all others. Before entering on the chrono- 
logical inquiry of the establishment of each of the 
churches professing Christianity, three things are 
assumed as evident, and therefore admissable by all. 
The first is the Church’s unity. Belief in its prin- 
ciples must be professed by all its members. What 
it commands or forbids as necessary to salvation 
must be equally observed. The second is the 
Church’s indefectibility, or its necessary continuance 
without interruption, from the time of its institution 
till the end of the world. This perennial existence 
of the Church follows from the object intended and 
declared by its divine Founder, viz., the salvation of 
all those who will to be saved, from its beginning to 
the day of judgment. The third is the infallibility 
of the Church ; that is, it cannot err in its teachings 
of what pertains to faith. This must be admitted, 
as a sequence to the admission of the Church, as a 
necessary means to man for salvation ; for if the 
Church errs as a whole, at any time, it ceases to be 
the reliable guide, as it professes to be, to the attain- 
ment of eternal happiness. But the possibility of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


247 


error is precluded by the assurance which Christ, its 
founder, gives : “ Going, therefore, teach ye all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you ; and behold I am with you all days, 
even to the consummation of the world (Matt., ch. 
xxvm, v. 19-20). And regarding the continual 
presence of the Holy Ghost : “And I will ask the 
Father, and He shall give another paraclete that 
he may abide with you forever. The spirit of 
truth,” etc. ( Jn . xiv, v. 16-17). In these passages 
a reliable guarantee is given to the Church of its 
inerribility. 

The dates of the institution of the different 
churches may now be inquired into, with the object 
of ascertaining which of them has the longest dura- 
tion of continued existence; or, in other words, which 
of them can show an uninterrupted existence from 
the days of the Apostles, in the first century of the 
Christian era. The inquiry will be confined to 
the great Christian denominations spoken of in a 
previous chapter. The inquiry begins with the 
Lutheran Church ; from its name, one readily 
judges that it sprang from Luther. What does 
history say of Luther? It states that he was a 
Catholic Monk, who revolted in the early part of 
the sixteenth century from the Catholic Church, 
preached a new doctrine, and instituted the Church 
which bears his name. History does not show the 


248 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


existence of the Lutheran Church before Luther’s 
time, therefore it is deficient of sufficient age to be 
the true Church of Christ, which continues without 
interruption from ApostoJic times. The reader is 
referred to any reliable life of Luther for fuller 
particulars regarding his separating from the Catholic 
Church, and his preaching a new doctrine to which 
his followers adhere. 

Calvinism, or Presbyterianism, presents the same 
lack of age in existence as Lutheranism, to give it 
any claim to be regarded as the true Christian 
Church. As it had its origin in the sixteenth 
century, almost contemporaneous with that of 
Lutheranism, all written history previous to that 
time is intelligibly silent about it. The Christian 
world in all preceding ages had been spared the 
enunciation of so harassing, so pitiless, so terrible, 
a doctrine as that one portion of the human race is 
predestined unconditionally to eternal happiness, and 
the other to everlasting misery. God is just, and 
no man will be condemned unjustly. The mind 
turns away in horror from the gloomy, harassing 
thoughts engendered by such a doctrine. As Calvin- 
ism had no constituted form of existence prior to 
the days of Calvin, who lived and died in the 
sixteenth century, and as Calvinists do not claim 
any, it may be dismissed without further remarks, 
as unworthy of longer examination in the search 
for the true Church of Christ. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


249 


The Anglican Church, or, as it is sometimes 
called, the Church of England, deserves some notice 
in our religious investigation ; not so much from its 
own merits as from the greatness of the nation from 
which it bears its name. English history presents 
to the reader Henry VIII. as its father and founder, 
not indeed in its present form ; for, on account of 
the simmering mass of its members, it has assumed 
many since his days. All England was Catholic 
for nearly a thousand years before Henry’s time. 
Even Henry enjoyed the reputation of being an 
exemplary Catholic king until unrestrained passion 
got the mastery of him. The cause of the king 
withdrawing from observing the laws of the Catholic 
Church, and virtually constituting himself pope over 
the once Catholic Church of England, but under 
him transformed, by a system of terrorizing, into 
the Anglican Church, has been so plainly stated in 
history, so widely read, as to require no iteration 
here. 

The object sought here is the date of the estab- 
lishment of the Anglican Church as a separate, 
distinct church, by its form, from all others, to 
ascertain if its descent can be traced from Apostolic 
time, or from the first century of the Christian era. 
What does history, anterior to the sixteenth century, 
say of this Church ? It says nothing at all from 
the evident reason that it belonged to the unknown. 
The Anglican Church, therefore, having no his- 
torical proof of existence before the sixteenth 


250 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


century, completely fails to satisfy the inquiry for 
the true Christian Church which must have an 
uninterrupted existence from the days of its divine 
Founder till the end of the world. These are the 
oldest — the Greek excepted — non-Catholic, Christian 
institutions that are worthy of some investigation 
to any one in search of the true Church. 

There are other large Christian non-Catholic 
bodies, as the Methodists, the Baptists, etc.; but, as 
history gives them all a still more recent date of 
origin, it is unnecessary to dwell at length on the 
consideration of them ; for all have the same con- 
demning defect, the want of time, to give them a 
reasonable claim to be considered the Church of all 
ages, from the time it was founded by Christ. 

Proceeding in our inquiry, we find only two 
distinct Christian Churches or religions existing 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, before 
Luther had formed his plan for instituting the 
Church that bears his name. These two still exist; 
they are the Catholic and the Greek Churches. 
There were also then as there are now, near the 
close of the nineteenth century, little Christian com- 
munities, the remains of once powerful heresies, such 
as the Arian, Nestorian, etc. ; but as no one would 
pause at these expecting to find in any of them the 
object of our inquiry, knowing that their ancestors, 
the originators of the heresies, had fallen from the 
Catholic Church in which they had at one time 
membership, it would evidently be profitless to 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


251 


include any of them here among the names of the 
great religious bodies claiming to be the true Chris- 
tian Church. We, therefore, dismiss all considera- 
tion of them, confining ourselves to an examination 
of the claims of the Catholic and Greek Churches, 
the only large Christian bodies prior to Luther’s 
time. Tracing the Greek Church to its origin, we 
cease to find its name, or any account of it in any 
history anterior to the eleventh century. In that 
century the Christian world professed but one form 
of faith, with the exception of the little heretical 
communities already referred to. Photius, usurping 
the Patriarchal See of Constantinople, began in the 
ninth century the agitation against Rome which 
culminated in the course of time in a separation of 
the Greek element from the great Catholic Church, 
and its formation in 1054 of a new institution, 
called the Orthodox Church. A thousand years, 
therefore, had elapsed from the time that Christ 
founded His Church till the world knew of the ex- 
istence of the new institution, the Greek Church. 
Hence it falls into the category of those already 
considered through its glaring defect of age to con- 
nect it as a separate Church with the first century, 
or the days of the Apostles. 

There remains but one more distinct Christian 
Church to be considered ; it is called and known as 
the Catholic Church. We find its existence in all 
ages from the Apostles’ days to the time of writing 
this work, which is in the last decade of the nine- 


252 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


teenth century. Its long list of supreme rulers, or 
Popes, in unbroken succession from St. Peter, the 
first Pope, whom Christ appointed the first head of 
His Church, to its present ruler, Pope Leo XIII., 
the two hundred and sixty-third successor to the 
Prince of the Apostles, affords an incontestable 
proof of its being the Church which is the object 
of our inquiry. But history in general attests the 
same fact, so that no reader of the history of the 
time elapsed since the Christian era can be ignorant 
of it. 

In treating of the antiquity of the Catholic 

Church, the name of one of her most illustrious 
sons and defenders comes before the mind, the 
learned, pious and indefatigable Athanasius, Patri- 
arch of Alexandria. He ably refuted Arius, who 
impugned the divinity of Christ in the first (Ecu- 
menical Council, which was held at Nice, and 

presided over by the Pope’s legates, A. D. 325. 

That beautiful and comprehensive exposition of 
Catholic faith which he has left us deserves insertion 
here, at least in part, being appropriate to our 

subject, for it shows the appellation Catholic to 
be in general use in reference to the Church at 
that early date. It is called the Athanasian Creed. 

The following is a beginning and an end of it : 
“ Whoever wills to be saved, before all things it is 
necessary that he hold the Catholic faith, which, 
unless each one observes entire and inviolate, with- 
out doubt, he shall perish forever.” Then he states 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


253 


what the Catholic faith is and terminates the Creed 
with these words: “This is the Catholic faith, 
which, unless each one faithfully and firmly believes, 
he cannot be saved.” The history of every century, 
from the time of Constantine to the date of the 
Greek schism, testifies to the existence of the 
Catholic Church. During the reign of that emperor 
was held the first (Ecumenical Council at Nice, 
which was presided over by the Pope’s legates, and 
condemned the Arian heresy. The existence of the 
Catholic Church in the intervening space of time, 
from that to the days of St. Peter, is easily proved. 
First, because history does not record the existence 
of any other Christian Church from the first 
century to the date of that Council ; for the Chris- 
tian world professed one faith, and was governed by 
each successive successor to St. Peter in the Papal 
See of Rome. Secondly, by the names of the Popes 
presenting a continuous succession from the first 
appointed by Christ. These are thirty-two in 
number. Their names are, Melchiades, predecessor 
to Silvester I., under whom the Council was held; 
Saints Eusebius, Marcellus I., Marcellinus, Caius, 
Eutychian, Felix I., Dionysius, Sixtus II., Stephen 
I., Lucius I., Cornelius, Fabian, Anterus, Pontian, 
Urban I., Calixtus I., Zephyrinus, Victor I., 
Eleutherius, Soler, Anicetus, Pius I., Hyginus, 
Telesphorus, Sixtus I., Alexander I., Evaristus, 
Anacletus, Clement I., Cletus, and Linus, the imme- 
diate successor to St. Peter, the first Pope or head of 


254 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the Church, appointed by Christ in the memorable 
words addressed to him by the Saviour of men : 
“And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build My Church ; and the gates of 
Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give 
to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ; and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be 
bound also in Heaven ” ( Matt ., ch. xvi, v. 18-19 ); 
also, “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep” {John, 
ch. xxi, v. 15-17). 

Extracts from the fathers of the early ages might 
be given in abundance to strengthen the proof of 
the existence of the Church in those ages ; but this 
would be evidently superfluous in the presence of 
the names of the pontiffs given, whose existence no 
one can deny, and all of whom, three excepted, 
died for the faith by a glorious martyrdom. 

We have traced the existence of the Catholic 
Church to the earthly life of Christ, and to its first 
head, St. Peter ; it is, therefore, the true Christian 
Church, and all others must be spurious. All non- 
Catholic churches have merely human founders. 
This their history plainly shows. Some are even 
known by their founders , names : as the Lutheran, 
the Calvinist, etc. ; and the founders of others, 
which do not so honor their progenitors, are so well 
known by the reader of history as to need no 
mention here. 

To the Catholic Church alone no mere man is 
ascribed as her founder. No mere man claims to 


4 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 255 

be her originator. No history attests that she came 
into existence by the work of any merely human 
being. This of itself points to her divine origin, 
to her foundation by the God-man, the Saviour of 
the world. 

The conspicuousness of the Gatholie Church in 
all ages is a necessary feature of the Church which 
Christ founded for the salvation of all men to the 
end of the world. For it is necessary that it should 
have this prominence that it may be accessible to 
all classes of men, in every age from the first century 
to the end of the world, not only to the learned, 
who form a very small portion of the human race, 
but also to the unlearned, the great majority of 
mankind ; not merely to the rich but chiefly to the 
poor, since they are the great mass of humanity ; 
to the weak and the lowly as well as to the great 
and powerful. 

Hence the Church has shone in all ages as a 
mighty light, casting its rays in all directions so as 
to be visible in all countries, that all might be drawn 
to it to find eternal life. In this Church alone is 
given, by inference, the promise of everlasting life, 
according to the words of Athanasius, with which 
he ends his exposition of the Catholic Faith, and 
which will also end this chapter : “ This is the 
Catholic Faith, which, unless each one faithfully and 
firmly believes, he cannot be saved.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Observations. 

OHORTLY after the good seed of the Kingdom 
^ of Christ had been sown, tares began to spring 
up among it. These were the heresies which have 
troubled the Church from the first century of its 
existence. In this century appeared the Simonian, 
the Cerinthian and the Ebionite heresies. Although 
disturbing her tranquility, they never attained such 
proportions as to cause grave anxiety, and soon 
dwindled into insignificance. 

The divinity of Christ, which the last named sect 
attacked, was too firmly impressed on the minds of 
Christians by the still fresh memory of the doings 
and life of Christ on earth, and the still more recent 
preaching of the Apostles, to allow the supplanting 
of it by the impious doctrine teaching its denial. 
At a later period an astute and skilful leader 
revived it, causing serious and prolonged afflictions 
to the whole Church. In the succeeding centuries 
heresies arose in gradual succession ; some of these 
much more serious than others. Gnosticism, having 
its origin in the second, must be regarded one of the 
most formidable of those existing in the early ages 
256 


GUrDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


257 


of the Christian Church. It mixed the true with 
the false. It taught principles acknowledged by 
Christianity and some that were not. It tried to 
supplant pure Christianity by blending it with 
Paganism. It appealed, therefore, to both Pagans 
and Christians. Its leading features were the belief 
in a dual supernatural rule : from one Supreme 
Being proceeding all that is good, and from the 
other all that is evil; the Spiritual world being the 
work of the good Deity over which He presides, 
the material proceeding from the evil one and 
subject to him. This heresy seems to anticipate 
future heresies of a very distant age, for it teaches 
also justification is to be obtained only by faith. 
As most of the people of those days were Pagans, 
or in a state of religious transition, having received 
with a good disposition the teachings of the Christian 
Church, though not thoroughly instructed in its 
principles, no slight danger threatened by a doctrine 
which offered a form of Christianity that did not 
wholly deny the time-honored, cherished principles 
of Paganism, but admitted some of its long estab- 
lished tenets. The danger was augmented by the 
skill of the philosophic element defending and 
energetically propagating the heretical doctrine. Its 
weakness soon, however, manifested itself, dispelling 
alarm from the Church, for it broke up into several 
sections, the ultimate phase of all heresies. 

In the third century appeared the Novatian and 
the Manichean and other heresies, which had but a 
17 


258 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


transient influence in disturbing the tranquility of 
the Church. They lost in gravity and prominence 
in the presence of another cause of ecclesiastical 
conflict, viz., the question of the celebration of the 
festival of Easter. The bishops of Asia Minor 
persisted in dissenting from the rest of the Christian 
world regarding the time it should be observed ; 
so determined were they in their opposition to the 
general observance that grave apprehension for the 
integrity of the Church was felt by many. But the 
nature of the subject in dispute, unless it led to 
others, seemed hardly to justify grave fears of its 
disrupting, at any time, the bond of Christian unity ; 
yet the tenacity with which a portion of the Eastern 
bishops maintained their own opinions in the matter 
caused much internal uneasiness until the Council 
of Nice decided the question, making the general 
observance the universal celebration. 

The Arian heresy, which has already been alluded 
to, had its origin, as also many others, in the fourth 
century. It eclipsed all other heresies of the early 
ages of the Church, and, indeed, by some it may be 
regarded as the most formidable assault on her 
doctrine that the Catholic Church has experienced 
in all the ages of her existence to the present time. 
Yet the divinity of Christ, which Arius denied, 
finds irrefutable testimony and authority in the 
Gospel of St. John, whose declaration of it is so 
strong and clear that Christians living in ages 
remote from the time of the origin of Christianity 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


259 


may wonder how the great heresiarch could find 
supporters, not only among the inferior ecclesiastics 
but also among the bishops. To understand a cause 
for their temporary heterodoxy, it is necessary to 
ascertain the actual condition of the teaching element 
in the Christian Church, before the complete over- 
throw of Paganism, embodied in the secular power. 

Faith, being a divine gift, may be possessed and 
adhered to with greater tenacity by the uneducated, 
than by those having received a moderate education; 
the latter are more liable to be impressed by the 
apparent soundness of the reasoning and deductions 
of a subtle and learned dialectician or philosopher 
than the former, who, in general, tend towards 
fanaticism in questions arousing conflict or violence 
in relation to their religion. 

In the first three centuries of its existence, 
the Christian Church was the object of Pagan per- 
secution, accompanied with intermittent physical 
violence. In such stormy times, it is easy to con- 
ceive how difficult it must have been for its adher- 
ents to obtain the benefits of a superior education. 
Hence it is not improbable that many of its prelates 
were more conspicuous for their piety, their disposi- 
tions for leading holy lives, together with the invin- 
cible courage displayed in the mortal ordeal with 
which many closed their lives, than for the acquisi- 
tions of profound erudition. Notwithstanding their 
amiable characters and exalted positions, they offered 
suitable material to the unscrupulous, ambitious, and 


260 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


talented polemetician, when he designed to assail 
Christianity in one of its fundamental principles. 
So Arius proved some of them to be, while, by 
intrigue, he invoked, through the instrumentality of 
his influential sympathizers, the imperial power to 
awe into concurrence in his impious doctrine the 
rest of the episcopacy. This latter element, the 
secular power, when it had vanquished its Pagan 
rival, became a source of much anxiety, trouble, and 
injury, to the peace and prosperity of the Church, 
although ostensibly acting with the object of pro- 
moting Christian unity and harmony. It lent its 
aid alternately to the Church, and to the promoters 
and abettors of heresy, according to the caprice or 
religious tendency of the occupant of the imperial 
throne at Constantinople. 

How much better it would have been for these 
earthly rulers to keep aloof from religious contro- 
versies, at least as regards the use of their authority, 
leaving them to the divinely constituted authority 
for settlement, and confining themselves to the 
laudable and meritorious occupations of protecting 
their subjects from hostile incursions, and ameliorat- 
ing their condition by chastising rapacious or unjust 
officials ; thus evincing their characters of worthy 
rulers, having the contentment and general pros- 
perity of the people at heart, gaining, in return, the 
love of their subjects, leaving to their successors ex- 
amples worthy of imitation, and to posterity names 
that would not be forgotten in the roll of honor. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


261 


Though greatly discomfited, at the Council of 
Nice, by the able refutation of his impious doctrine 
by the saintly and learned Athanasius, which was 
followed by the CounciPs condemnation of the 
Arian heresy, and the excommunication of its 
author, Arius had not yet reached the end of his 
resources, for, through the duplicity of his followers, 
new stratagems were conceived whereby they hoped 
to enthrone their idol and make the condemned 
heresy prevail over the true doctrine. They made 
the gaining of the imperial favor the great object 
of their endeavors — the sword and shield with 
which to conquer. 

There would seem to be little ground, at first, to 
warrant the hope for this alliance, for Constantine, 
the Emperor, immediately after the CounciPs action, 
banished both Arius and his two supporters in the 
Council, the Bishops Theonas of Marmorica, and 
Secundus of Ptolemais. Emperors’ decrees, how- 
ever, are not irrevocable, so the Arians did not 
lose hope, but persevered with energy in their 
schemes for the recall of their leader. They num- 
bered among their adherents a person of no little 
influence with the imperial dictator. This was Con- 
stants, the sister of Constantine. On her death-bed 
she asked, as a favor of her brother, the recall of 
Arius, with the extension of kind treatment to his 
followers. The heart of the Emperor was touched ; 
his sympathy for the Catholic Church suddenly 
changed ; the heresiarch was recalled after a few 


262 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


years of exile. Both he and his principal sup- 
porters, by degrees, entrenched themselves behind 
the imperial favor thus so auspiciously manifested. 

Then followed the ominous action of Constantine, 
banishing Eustathius, the Catholic Patriarch of 
Antioch, and Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, 
in order to fill these sees with Arian partisans. 
Such was the beginning of the triumph of Arianism. 
Its scheme contemplated the subversion of Catho- 
licity by expelling from their sees all Catholic 
bishops, and filling them with Arians. That exalted 
office, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, had been the 
object of Anus’ ambition; following the denial of 
which he immediately began his heresy. A renewal 
of his attempt to satisfy that ambition shortly after 
his recall from exile, was also defeated by the refusal 
of the Church at Alexandria to have communion 
with the heresiarch and usurper of the office of 
their beloved, exiled Patriarch, Athanasius. With 
the imperial favor supporting his cause, he was at 
length admitted to communion by a Synod, held at 
Jerusalem. This unholy action supplied a pretext 
for his reception elsewhere. Constantine having so 
far espoused his cause, commanded that he should 
be received into communion at Constantinople. In 
vain did the holy Patriarch, St. Alexander, offer 
bis protest against the sacrilegious project. What 
might have followed, had his admission been effected 
contrary to the teachings of the Church and the 
decree of the Council recently held, must be left to 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


263 


conjecture, as it never was consummated. He had 
arrived at the end of an ignominious career; a 
mysterious death cut him off from the living. 
Bathed in his blood with his entrails protruding, 
he presented a most horrible spectacle, an ominous 
warning to all his adherents. His heresy, however, 
did not die with him ; fostered by autocratic pro- 
tection, it gathered strength to make the final charge 
destined to lead to victory. This, however, was not 
to be until a more devoted imperial master had 
placed himself at its head. 

The death of Constantine prevented him from 
doing further injury to the Church. His sons, 
Constantine II. and Constans, partially remedied 
the evil by withdrawing favor from the heretics. 
Arianism, in the meantime, progressed until the 
arrival of Constantius, its greatest champion, oh the 
throne in A. D. 350, when it exulted in its complete 
victory. Then did the Church of Christ experience 
the worst of all her trials. Her bishops refusing 
to embrace the heretical doctrine, were forced from 
their bishoprics, and Arians chosen to fill their 
places. But the vast majority of the faithful re- 
mained firm in the true faith, so that at the death 
of Constantius, he was miserably disappointed at 
the failure of the great scheme to transform true 
Christian faith into an impious heresy. The relig- 
ious strife continued with varying success on either 
side till the reign of Theodosius the Great, who, 
seeing the distracted state of the empire and lament- 


264 


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able condition of the Church, proscribed Arianism 
as the cause of all the trouble. The heretics were 
ordered to vacate all the usurped offices of the 
Church, and forbidden to assemble within the limits 
of Constantinople. Thus cut off from the imperial 
city, the hot-bed of their machinations and the 
source of their supplies, the Arians lost all hope, 
disappeared as a cause of trouble, enabling both 
Church and State to enter an era of long desired 
peace. 

In the intervening centuries between the fourth 
and the sixteenth, though many heresies arose to 
give some annoyance to the Church of Christ, it 
would be tedious to severally consider them ; for 
they at no time assumed such power and extension 
as to cause grave alarm, as did Arianism, which 
intruded itself into the hierarchal office of the 
Church, not excepting even the Roman See, the 
ruler of the Church ; for the Arians had also their 
antipope Felix, with whom they replaced the rightful 
occupant of the Papal See, Pope Liberius, sent by 
Constantius into exile. We may, therefore, pass 
over these minor heresies till we come to the more 
successful, though less dangerous ones, of more 
modern times, inaugurated by the revolt of Luther 
in the sixteenth century. They are less dangerous, 
however prosperous, because they disclaim all con- 
nection with Catholicity. 

Modern heresies are almost contrary to Arianism. 
Arius denied the divinity of Christ, but admitted 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


265 


the other principles of the Catholic faith. Luther 
admitted the divinity of Christ, but denied nearly 
all the principles of the same faith. Arius wished to 
be in the Church, yet denying one of its fundamental 
principles and sustaining his belief by plausible 
arguments. Herein lay the danger of corrupting 
the faithful, as actually happened. Luther, disre- 
garding all ecclesiastical history and tradition, re- 
jected almost in entirety the principles of Catholic 
faith, and formed a new one such as either he 
thought to have existed in the primitive ages of 
Christianity, or such as by his private interpretation 
of Sacred Scriptures, for which they were never 
intended, he thought should exist. To those who 
had received the faith and persevered in it with 
humility there was little danger of infidelity, but to 
those who evinced curiosity regarding the mysteries 
of faith, beyond due limits, no little danger existed ; 
for they imitated Eve and Lot’s wife to a degree, 
notwithstanding the warning they had received. 

When a member of a family becomes discontented 
under the paternal roof, when he manifests a dis- 
position not to obey the commands and regulations 
emanating from the head of the family, it results 
generally in expulsion from the home, or in his 
voluntary departure to labor for his personal advan- 
tage and to find an abode where he shall not be 
liable to paternal restraint, but have things accord- 
ing to his own will, be his own master. Although 
the parent may grieve for the incorrigibility of his 


266 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

son, yet he is pleased at the separation ; knows that 
the home is better without him, free from disturb- 
ance and free from the danger of corrupting the 
other members of the family. Such was the sepa- 
ration of Luther, in a religious sense, from the 
Catholic Church. He departed and erected a new 
religious edifice for himself and such followers as 
would coincide in his religious opinions. By this 
course there was no fear of him causing internal 
disturbance to the Church he left. 

The course pursued by Arius was different ; he 
did not wish to appear as departing from the 
Catholic Church, but sought to remain in it, to 
corrupt the faith of its members by denying one of 
its essential principles. Hence the commotion caused 
within the Church productive of long affliction to 
its members. 

From the Arian and the Lutheran with its kin- 
dred heresies of modern times, the Catholic Church 
sustained the greatest shocks ; but of these the Arian 
was by far the most dangerous, permeating, as it did, 
some of the bishops, the ruling order in the Church- 

The great factor in the formation and continu- 
ance of modern systems of Christianity, is the erro- 
neous assumption of the Bible as the sole or principal 
guide to salvation. 

When Luther had finally determined to give 
form to his religious opinions for observance by 
his followers, having rejected the autthority of the 
history of the Church, tradition, and the Fathers, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


267 


he had ready recourse to the Sacred Scriptures, to 
justify by his private interpretation of them his 
novel and peculiar dogmatic opinions. The authors 
of the other non-Oatholic denominations, though 
differing from him in the distinctive principles of 
their creeds, followed his example. The Bible was 
made the final tribunal to decide, by private inter- 
pretation, all religious doubts of the mind, all 
doctrinal disputes arising among the members of 
their churches. 

The Bible thus became the great panacea for 
assuaging all the religious trouble of the mind. 
The Bible is undoubtedly a good book. Its parts 
were written by different authors, supernatural ly 
inspired, as generally or universally believed by 
Christians. But, like many other things that prove 
dangerous and even fatal to man, although intended, 
when rightly used, for his benefit, the Bible requires 
to be cautiously handled. To the pious, to the 
devout, to the virtuous, to the person endeavoring 
to become virtuous, even to the well-disposed having 
none of these amiable qualities, but who seek in- 
struction, it may be used as a great aid in the work 
of salvation. It must be read, however, with a 
due submission to its authoritative interpretation by 
the true Church of Christ. This condition the 
Prince of the Apostles clearly states in his second 
epistle, verse 20: “ Understand this first, that no 
prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpre- 
tation. For prophecy came not by the will of man 


268 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

at any time; but the holy men of God spoke, in- 
spired by the Holy Ghost.” In chapter third, same 
epistle, verses 19 and 20, he insinuates this submis- 
sion in the following words : “And account the 
long suffering of Our Lord salvation : as also our 
most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom 
given him, hath written to you : as also in all his 
epistles, speaking in them of these things in which 
are certain things hard to be understood, which the 
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the 
other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” St. 
Paul shows the utility of the Holy Scriptures in a 
passage of his second epistle to Timothy, viz : “And 
because from thy infancy thou hast known the 
Holy Scriptures which can instruct thee to salvation 
by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture 
inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to 
correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God 
may be perfect, furnished in every good work” 
(II Timothy , chap, in, v. 15-17). From these ex- 
tracts we perceive the necessity of submission to the 
authoritative interpretation of the Scriptures, and 
secondly the utility of them in the work of our 
salvation. But where is it stated that they must be 
regarded as the sole rule of faith or the absolute 
guide to salvation ? To no man or body of men, 
since the birth of Christ, did God say at any time, 
here is the Bible, it contains all that is necessary to 
guide you to the fulfilment of your duty by your 
own interpretation of its meaning ; read it, ponder 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


269 


over it and make it your guide to forming your 
religious opinions and to your religious observances. 
But God did say to those whom He had appointed 
to preach to all nations the true Christian faith and 
to practise true religion : “ Going, therefore, teach 
ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you ; and behold I am with you 
all days, even to the consummation of the world ” 
(Matt., ch. xxvm, v. 19-20). In this passage, by 
the words “ Teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you,” the supreme 
authority to guide all men to their eternal salvation 
is evidently given not to any book, however sacred, 
but to the Apostles and, as the Church cannot fail 
since Christ is with it to the end of the world, to 
their successors also. 

It is pertinent to our subject to ask the question : 
To what power of the mind should be attributed 
the divergence by any one from sound doctrine or 
true faith? Whether is it to be ascribed to the 
intellect or to the will; for these are the powers 
that lead men to act. The office of the intellect is 
to learn, to gather information, to possess knowledge 
in order to decide in all matters for the will to act. 
It always precedes in action that of the will whose 
command impels the individual to act. In all 
matters coming within the scope of reason, the 
intellect is almost invariably followed by the action 


270 


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of the will; for it acts as a guide to the latter. But 
true faith demands of us internal acts in matters 
transcending the scope of reason. Yet it offers 
sufficient data for the action of the will in the 
veracity of God, His justice, His omnipotence to 
fulfil His promises to the good, to inflict punish- 
ment on the wicked by the things known by man 
to have happened, such as the exact fulfilment of 
prophecy, the performance of miracles and the 
terrible punishments inflicted even in this life, as 
recorded in Scripture on the wicked. In this case 
the will acts more independently of the intellect 
than in the sphere of reason, where it depends on 
the action of the intellect. With regard, then, to 
the person who rejects or refuses to profess true 
Christian faith, to which of these powers must be 
attributed the cause of his action? An ignorant 
person, relying on the judgment of others, might be 
induced, though well disposed, to believe in false 
doctrine. The question, however, has reference to 
those who have received an ordinary education. 
Few will deny that the non-Catholic Christian is as 
well educated as the Catholic. Either, however, 
has sufficient knowledge to make him judge between 
the true and the false. 

Let us ascend to a class of deeper learning and 
greater knowledge, viz., the priests of the Catholic 
and the ministers or preachers of non-Catholic 
bodies. No one would impute to them, at least, a 
want of sufficient knowledge or intellectual ability, 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


271 


to discern the true from the false. Yet these men, 
after years of study, are divided on the subject of 
religion, knowing, however, that there can be but 
one true faith, one true religion. It appears, there- 
fore, that not to the intellect but to the will must 
be attributed the refusal to profess true faith. The 
following passage of Scripture sustains the answer 
and illustrates the subject; it is from the discourse 
of our Lord concerning the necessity of receiving 
the Holy Eucharist, or His Sacred Body and Blood, 
by which declaration some of His disciples re- 
nounced adherence to Him: “Then Jesus said to 
them: Amen, Amen, I say unto you: Except you 
eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His 
blood, you shall not have life in you. Many, there- 
fore, of His disciples hearing it said : This saying 
is hard, and who can hear it? But Jesus knowing 
in Himself that His disciples murmured at this, 
said to them: Doth this scandalize you? If then 
you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He 
was before?” (John, ch. VI, v. 54, 61, 62, 63). 
There is no reason to doubt that the disbelieving 
disciples understood the true meaning which our 
Lord intended to convey by the words: “Except 
you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink 
His blood, you shall not have life in you ; ” for it 
cannot be reasonably supposed that Christ, who 
ardently desired and labored for the salvation of 
men, would suffer the loss of any disciple through 
a misunderstanding of His meaning. They had 


272 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the same reasons for belief that the faithful disciples 
had, but these were deemed insufficient to draw 
their wills to give credence in Christ’s divinity and 
omnipotence. That they did not believe in His 
power to give them His flesh to eat, and that this 
was the cause of their separating from Him, is made 
evident from the last part of the quotation by which 
he wished to convince them of His power to do 
what He said concerning the receiving of His sacred 
flesh: “Doth this scandalize you? If then you 
shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was 
before? ” 

If they would not believe in His ability to give 
His followers His flesh to eat, would they believe, 
if they had a sensible proof of His omnipotence, in 
His visible ascent into heaven ? Subsequent, though 
not all, departures from true faith may find in this 
case their prototype. In matters of faith, therefore, 
exceeding the limits of reason, it is required of all 
to submit their will, and whoever refuses the sub- 
mission of his will, is not fit for the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 


CHAPTER XX. 


Enlargement of Christ’s Fold. 

fTO Columbus, Christianity, and not only it, but 
the nations of the earth, owe a debt of honor. 
When that intrepid navigator sailed from the shores 
of Spain, on his memorable voyage of discovery, 
his most sanguine hope must have found more than 
its realization in adding to the map of the world 
one of its greatest continents. In A. D. 1492 he 
discovered America, which had hitherto been un- 
known to civilization. Taking possession of it in 
the name of Ferdinand, King of Spain, he gave to 
that monarch a region so vast that, in comparison 
with which, his kingdom would hardly attain to the 
proportion of a county to a kingdom. He thus 
added immensely to geographical knowledge, and 
aroused a spirit of inquiry and exploration which in 
turn promoted the interests of science and extended 
the sphere of general knowledge. He gave to the 
commercial world new marts that should in the 
future, with the development of the country, become 
emporiums for all nations. 

This vast region he added also to the Kingdom 
of Christ on earth ; for with him sailed the priests 
18 273 


274 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


of the Church, who erected the Cross, taking pos- 
session of the New World, to be planted and tended 
as destined to become a fruitful portion of the 
vineyard of the Lord. By the defection of Luther 
and other leaders of modern denominations of Chris- 
tianity, the Church lost considerably in northern 
Europe; but, by the discovery of America, it gained 
spiritual jurisdiction over a country many times 
greater than the territory it lost in the religious 
secessions of the sixteenth century. And if, in re- 
gard to population, the compensation was not, at the 
time of secession, equal to the loss, it was destined 
in no distant future time to acquire such extensive 
dimensions as to far exceed that loss. The scores 
of millions acknowledging the salutary rule of the 
Church, near the end of the nineteenth century, 
amply repay it for the few sparsely populated 
countries that renounced it in the sixteenth 
century. 

The continued rapid growth of the Catholic 
Church on the continent of America, from its incep- 
tion there, leads to the belief that, in some future 
time, it shall be the prevailing religion, absorbing, 
if not all, at least the majority of all others. This 
predictive assertion may be deemed extravagant by 
some ; but the consideration of a few facts will be 
found more than sufficient to furnish the grounds for 
it. First, all South America is Catholic, for all its 
republics profess the Catholic faith; the Catholic 
religion being the acknowledged national form of 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


275 


worship. The states of Central America are also 
Catholic. 

In North America, Catholicity is professed by 
the populous republic of Mexico, whilst in the re- 
public of the United States of America, the members 
of the Catholic Church exceed in number those of 
any other denomination. The members of the same 
Church form nearly one-half of the population of 
the Dominion of Canada. These statistical state- 
ments may be verified by any one having recourse 
to the census of these countries made in the last 
decade of the nineteenth century. 

With the continual progress of the Church all 
over the continent, and the great extent of its 
spiritual rule in the countries referred to, it should 
not be thought improbable that the American wing 
of the Catholic Church may yet include in the fold 
almost the entire population of the Western Conti- 
nent. There are not wanting other reasons, how- 
ever, to justify the expectation of this desirable 
union of the various denominations, acknowledging 
Christ as their Master. 

In systems of religion, whose sole guide to justi- 
fication is the Bible, subject to private interpretation, 
there must necessarily arise uneasiness in the mind 
concerning the adoption of one of different opinions, 
which may be held of the meaning of many passages 
of Scripture. That such is the case, the existence 
alone of the different denominations plainly proves. 
If, in cases requiring no great learning or knowledge 


276 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


to decide, men frequently appeal to physical force to 
sustain their irreconcilable opinions, what disturbed 
conditions may not arise when different minds are 
applied to passages of Scripture, which, according 
to the doctrines of the denominations, admit of 
different interpretations. Doubt in general cannot 
be excluded from the members of such systems. 
Doubt leads to further inquiry, and in some to the 
reading of the history of the Church of Christ from 
the beginning. To an unprejudiced mind, the read- 
ing of the history of the Church from its incep- 
tion, should alone suffice to lead the way to the 
true fold. It is no wonder then that many failing 
to find in the denominal faith they once professed, 
that mental quietude they sought after by unpreju- 
diced research, were led into the Catholic Church. 

Many accessions in late years have in this and 
other ways, doubt being dispelled from all classes, 
been made, affording a hopeful sign of others yet to 
follow, and of greater numerical extent. 

Among the causes promoting the interests of 
Christianity in general, whilst contributing to a 
nearer approximation of its various denominations, 
should not be forgotten the tendency to practise in 
a higher degree the exalting Christian virtue of 
charity. The love of one’s neighbor is the great 
command which our Divine Master impressed upon 
all His followers, so great indeed that He places it 
next to the love of God ; and to emphasize its im- 
portance, He declares that the love of God and the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


277 


love of our neighbor form the foundation of the 
whole law and the prophets. Occasionally, spas- 
modic attempts have been made, by men devoid of 
this ennobling virtue, in the formation of organiza- 
tions whose avowed object is to engender sentiments 
of hatred in one or more denominations against 
another. The days, however, are nearly past when 
such evil designs might hope for success by in- 
stigating to prejudice, arraying Christian against 
Christian to practise hatred instead of love. 

The humanizing fruits of a better and more 
general education than could be enjoyed in former 
days, the mutual knowledge the members of the 
denominations have of each other’s daily life, frus- 
trate and enable them to see through such evil-boding 
machinations. The majority of every denomination 
manifest their disapprobation of them by a significant 
silence, whilst the more courageous, in manly and 
laudable denunciations. All deliberate instigators 
to strife and hatred, among the Christian denomina- 
tions of a nation, not only oppose the progress of 
Christianity by antagonizing its elements, but menace 
the peace, unity and prosperity of the nation itself. 
The words of Christ, “ Every kingdom divided 
against itself shall be made desolate; and every 
city or house divided against itself shall not stand ” 
(. Matt ., eh. xir, v. 25), aptly apply to the condition 
of such a nation. Hence all true patriots, all the 
wise and prudent legislative custodians of a nation, 
should take the alarm when they perceive in their 


278 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


midst the propagators of discord among the people, 
with the ostensible object of injuring one or more 
denominations, but with the certain result, if allowed 
to proceed, of affecting the whole nation, disturbing 
its peace, impeding its prosperity and weakening its 
unity. The God-fearing men of a nation will 
frown on all organized attempts to set citizen against 
citizen, creed against creed, banishing the love of 
one’s neighbor, which Christ made a necessary 
characteristic of all those who believe in Him, 
seeking eternal life. 

Nowhere does the need of the practice of the 
great Christian precept of love exist, than in the 
nations of America; but especially in the vast re- 
public of the United States. There, former citizens 
of many nations commingle in the process of amal- 
gamation into a new citizenship, and, notwithstand- 
ing this, dissimilarity of character will naturally 
remain ; some being of a more sensitive tempera- 
ment, others susceptible, some cool and phlegmatic 
to a degree, others excitable, so that in affairs of 
moment the exercise of mutual forbearance, prompted 
by Christian love, finds abundant scope for peace, 
merit and edification. In vain would a Christian 
aspire to eternal happiness by the performance of 
other good works, if he should be found wanting in 
charity. In vain would be his enjoyment of pros- 
perity on earth ; in vain the bestowal of his goods 
on the destitute ; in vain, even the sacrifice of his 
own life for any object, however laudible, if he neg- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


279 


lected to fulfil the second great precept of the law : 
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The 
message from heaven to earth, ushering in the birth 
of the Saviour of men, was, Peace on earth to men 
of good will. Christ is not the God of discord, or 
of hatred, but of peace, concord, and harmony. As 
every person is responsible solely to Almighty God 
for whatever religious opinion or belief he holds, or 
fails to hold, so it must be deemed culpable pre- 
sumption for any one or body of men to hate, per- 
secute, or injure others, because of their religious 
belief. God is sole judge, punisher, or re warder. 
Therefore, whoever injures another physically, or 
causes animosity or hatred in others against him, 
which may be more detrimental than physical 
violence because of his religion, invades divine 
right. He cannot hope to escape divine justice ; 
but justice requires that due reparation be made for 
all injury unlawfully inflicted. As every Christian 
then has taken upon himself the obligation to fulfil 
the precept of neighborly love, he should not only 
avoid the snares but, by lawful means, counteract 
the evil designs of those nominal Christians who, 
however specious their arguments, would substitute 
enmity instead of it. 

Whatever may be the future political life of 
America, Christianity has been firmly established 
there, and will continue to prosper and multiply its 
adherents from one end of the continent to the 
other. Contemplating its vast wealth, its exhaust- 


280 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


less resources of minerals of all descriptions, from 
the most precious downward, its prodigious growth 
of cereals and all the necessaries of life far exceed- 
ing the needs of its inhabitants, the wonderful in- 
genuity and spirit of enterprise of its people per- 
ceptible in the rapid development of the country, 
the mind may form an idea, but will fail to find a 
limit to its greatness. Its inter-continental position 
makes its harbors easy of access to those engaged in 
commerce. It is thus admirably situated and con- 
ditioned to exercise no slight influence on the rest of 
the world, and will continue to do so with increasing 
effect in the future. Having secured Christianity for 
her own children, America may generously supply 
a contingent of zealous sons to participate in the 
great spiritual mission of supplanting with true 
Christianity, paganism and idolatry, deeply in- 
trenched in Asia, the greatest of the continents, 
where they have defied the advance of Christianity 
for so many centuries. 

Over this, as it is over the others, the Cross must 
be triumphant. Africa may be regarded as virtually 
conquered by Christianity; for with Christian 
nations pouring in on it on all sides from Europe, 
the conversion of its inhabitants requires merely 
time to instruct them for its reception, rather than 
the will or ability to resist it. With Africa, 
then, in the hands of Christians, all the continents 
of the earth, Asia excepted, are subject to Christian 
rule. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


281 


As the preachers of the Gospel of Christ cannot 
remain inactive as long as paganism or idolatry 
shows signs of life, so the Asiatic continent will 
afford the theatre for the final struggle between the 
followers of the false gods and those of the true God. 

Australia, with her neighboring islands, is the 
last of the great divisions of the globe to enter the 
fold of Christ. Long did she wait in the night of 
her spiritual darkness for the dawn of the heavenly 
light that should bring her to Christ her Spouse. 
Clasped in the arms of the Gospel and civilization, 
she manifested to tli.e world, in an incredibly short 
time, her admired natural gifts. She promises well, 
in course of time, to rival her elder sisters in the 
fruitfulness of her portion of the vineyard of the 
Lord. 

Australia, like America, possesses vast natural 
sources of wealth and great capabilities of extensive 
commerce, with her ingredients of national pros- 
perity, leading to a future greatness commensurate 
with the development of the country. It is, how- 
ever, to her religious aspect that attention is here 
directed. In the brief space of a century, from a 
few colonists, she has given to the Church such 
numbers of children that ere long they will be 
reckoned by millions. These, like their co-relig- 
ionists in America, manifest the same spirit of 
intellectual activity and general progress that oper- 
ates there. Churches, schools, colleges and religious 
institutions have been erected by the hundred. 


282 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


What a cause of rejoicing to the lovers of Christian 
progress! And yet the work is just beginning. 
This great field needs only to be tended to make it 
one of the most fruitful portions of Christ’s vine- 
yard. The overseers have already been appointed 
for its care. It shall flourish under them ; for, in 
addition to the zeal that actuates them, there is the 
weighty motive that they have to render account of 
their stewardship to the Master of the vineyard, 
hoping to obtain that ineffable reward that He has 
promised to His faithful servants. 

The different denominations of Christianity are to 
be found side by side with each other in Australia, 
as in America. Although laboring for the success 
of their particular creeds, they do not forget the 
great precept of Christian love. Whilst each, there- 
fore, tends to the Church to which his conscience 
directs him, he extends to others differing from him 
that mutual respect begotten of charity, so edifying 
among Christians. 

The great progress which Australia has already 
made in religion, politics, science, national develop- 
ment, and her ever-growing commerce, supply data 
for the belief in her excelling greatness in the future. 
Her prospects should be even brighter than those of 
America. Being less cosmopolitan in the character 
of her people than America, the solidity of national 
unity is of far easier achievement with her than 
with the other. Nearly all her inhabitants, exclusive 
of the few Aborigines, can claim Great Britain and 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


283 


Ireland as their ancestral homes, whilst nearly all 
nations may claim a share in the formation of the 
national character of North Americans. Obviously, 
it requires great skill, prudence, and firmness in the 
rulers and legislators of a country, where immigrants 
from many nations have decided to make their future 
homes, to assimilate them with the rest so as to 
acquire the spirit of the nation, and divesting them 
of foreign peculiarities that they may become ab- 
sorbed in the crucible of national unity. Australia 
is comparatively exempt from this necessity. What- 
ever vicissitudes she may have to experience in her 
national life, she shall have fewer dangers to appre- 
hend in any crisis, political or otherwise, which occa- 
sionally occurring, tests the unity of a nation. 

With her rich and abundant natural resources, 
Australia cannot fail to prosper in the future, even 
more rapidly than in the past. The extent of her 
greatness will appear with the development of the 
country; this promises to be at no slow pace. Her 
spacious and numerous harbors, with many other 
facilities for trade, enable her to have a most exten- 
sive commerce, so as to-justify the belief that she 
will in course of time rival the greatest commercial 
nations of the earth. She will also extend, by her 
international communications, her christianizing in- 
fluence in those countries and islands not at the 
greatest distance from her, where infidelity and 
idolatry have for centuries fortified themselves in 
the minds of the natives, inciting them to fierce 


284 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


hostility against the peaceful introduction of Chris- 
tianity among them. 

In the discovery of these two continents, and their 
subjection to the rule of Christianity, we perceive the 
wonderful progress it has made, and that its steady 
advance in the future is assured, with brightest pros- 
pect of other conquests. It should not be forgotten, 
however, that nearly half of the human race are yet 
in spiritual darkness in the greatest of the continents 
of the earth. The preachers of the Gospel of 
Christ cannot be inactive till they have conquered 
Asia also for their Divine Master. 

The wonderful growth of the Catholic Church on 
the continents of America and Australia, with their 
adjacent islands, must be apparent to all who know 
the religious history of these countries. Small in 
her beginning, like the mustard seed of Scriptural 
parable, she has grown and expanded by degrees 
till she has overspread with her branches nearly all 
the lands of the earth. Nowhere does she manifest 
the proof of her supernatural vitality, the innate 
vigor of which shfc is possessed, than in these great 
divisions of the globe. Noiselessly does she labor, 
sending forth her children with the maternal bless- 
ing, in the vineyard of her Spouse, to extend its 
limits and to reap the spiritual harvest. As she 
has grown apace with the progress of these conti- 
nents, in civilization and national development, so 
she shall continue to do so in the future. Her 
present grand dimensions afford the idea of the 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


285 


immensity of the magnitude to which she will yet 
attain. 

When the religious storm of the sixteenth century 
raged with remorseless violence over the northern 
portion of her flock in Europe, severing them tem- 
porarily from the fold, many may have thought 
that the old Christian Church would resemble those 
great empires that in ages past attracted the admira- 
tion of their contemporaries at their incomparable 
wealth, power and magnificence, but which in time 
became dismembered, decayed, fell into ruin, finally 
disappearing as if they had never existed. Why 
have they so passed away? Because they were 
human edifices. All human structures can have 
only a temporary existence. The Church survived 
the storm as she had others long before it. Christ 
declared she would survive all storms and all assaults 
when He founded her on a rock. The reason is 
evident. She subsists not by mere human means, 
but also by those that are supernatural. 

The Church not only recovered from the shock, 
but soon evinced no impairment in her vigor, no 
abatement in her zeal for new spiritual conquests; 
with increased activity she sent forth in all directions 
her devoted sons to repair her loss, to seek new fields 
to be added to her great vineyard. Her efforts have 
been rewarded with unparallelled success. The ac- 
quisition of the continents of America and Australia 
with innumerable islands is the proof of that success. 
Their acquisition also verifies the assertion that the 


286 


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Church has been more than adequately compensated 
for her European loss in the troublous times of the 
sixteenth century. That loss, nevertheless, has been 
keenly felt by her because of the unjustifiable means 
by which the separation of her children from her 
was effected. But this separation, though protracted, 
should be regarded as only temporary, as it is shown 
in the following chapter. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


Return to the Fold. 

THOSE who, through dissatisfaction with Chris- 
tian doctrine taught from the beginning, 
desirous of a more rational one, separated themselves 
from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, 
found themselves in the necessity of formulating 
new creeds in accordance with their desires. This 
was no easy task, for the most eminent leader in 
each distinct division of the seceders, if he hoped 
for success, had to consider the opinions of others 
as well as his own. Hence each had to abandon or 
modify his cherished private judgment in order to 
preserve the appearance of unity among his fol- 
lowers, some of whose opinions, from acknowledged 
reputation for erudition of their holders or general 
influence, it would be imprudent to disregard. A 
course of compromise was the result. This was the 
more easily effected because of the admitted right of 
private interpretation of the Holy Scripture. 

Having rejected the Catholic Church, with all 
tradition, they were forced to have recourse for 
formulating their systems and founding their 
churches to the book called the New Testament. 

287 


288 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


Here they found ample play for both intellect and 
imagination. This book they made the funda- 
mental, the essential of their differing creeds. 

Did the thought never occur to the founders of 
the new denominations that they were assuming as 
essential what was not so in reality to true Chris- 
tianity ? Did they not know that true Christianity 
had been established without the aid, long before 
the existence of the book called the New Testament? 
What was not essential to true Christianity at the 
time of its establishment by Christ, cannot be an 
essential of it in the sixteenth, or any other century. 

Taking this silent authority as the basis of their 
religion, in the interpretation of whose contents even 
the most learned disagree, the future dissensions and 
strife among the members of each denomination 
might be easily foreseen. 

When a member, using his private judgment, ex- 
pressed an opinion on any Scriptural passage dis- 
agreeing with that of the majority, he might expect 
to be judged guilty of heresy. Either of two alter- 
natives had to be adopted, to renounce his private 
judgment, or to be arraigned, tried and expelled. 
Seldom complying with the former and anticipating 
the latter, the discontented generally left his denomi- 
nation, sought membership in another, or became 
the originator of a new one. Hence the splitting-up 
process that has accompanied the denominations 
almost from the time of their origin, and which has 
become the prolific parent of the multitude of Chris- 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


289 


tian sects with peculiar creeds. Looking to the 
foundation of these bodies, the material for cohesion 
must be very weak and deficient. In days not very 
remote, they could be easily swayed by the oratory 
of their preachers appealing to the passions. The 
fruitful theme of their invectives was antagonism 
to the Catholic Church. When the first seceders 
from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century 
had died, their posterity up to a late date had no 
adequate conception of Catholic religion. Various 
causes contributed to this ignorance of the Church 
of their forefathers. The cultivated prejudices that 
sprang up in the religious strife in the early days of 
the denominations may be assigned as one. To this 
should be added want of education. Till recently 
the education of the vast majority of a nation was 
limited to the attainment of the knowledge of read- 
ing and writing, and the elements of arithmetic. 
Even these slight acquisitions many of the people 
did not possess. 

As the uneducated offer the best soil for the opera- 
tion of inflammatory addresses, it may be easily 
conceived how immense was the .field open to the 
display of passionate invectives. The rapid progress 
of civilization, of science, and of art in the nine- 
teenth century, with the developments that have 
followed, gave an impetus to the desire of more ex- 
tensive knowledge; causing the demand of a higher, 
a more comprehensive education. About the middle 
of this century dawned the era of this higher educa- 
19 


290 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


tion for the masses. The nations also who aspire 
to eminence among others, as also those that desire 
to preserve themselves from absorption by more 
powerful and ambitious neighbors, perceiving a 
source of national strength in the mental devel- 
opment of the people, have cheerfully espoused the 
cause promoting the nation’s interests by the benefits 
accruing from a higher education. 

No longer will reading, writing, with a little 
arithmetic, suffice to equip the average member of a 
nation for the duties of life. He must go far beyond 
these old educational limits ; his mental scope must 
be greatly enlarged. He is expected to know in 
addition to these, grammar, history, the outlines of 
physical science, of the more abstract science of 
algebra, geometry, etc. The acquisition of school 
education, or attendance at school for a number of 
years is no longer an optional affair to parent or 
child as in former times. By compulsory education 
the governments of nations evince the keen interest 
they take in and the importance they attach to the 
enlightenment of all their members. Great results 
must naturally follow the higher education of the 
people. It has rendered them competent, with a 
little training, to fill many offices in public life, from 
which their lack of knowledge had formerly ex- 
cluded them. 

It has contributed to a closer international con- 
nection by stimulating the spirit of business and 
enterprise, displaying itself with increasing activity 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 291 

in the various lines of international commerce. It 
has also made itself felt by the preacher or pulpit 
orator when addressing an audience. Few preachers 
will venture a strong appeal to the passions as form- 
erly characterized the sermons of many vehement 
speakers. They will choose rather to deliver their 
discourses in the garb of sound reasoning, if they 
hope to produce effect; for the average audience, 
unlike those of former days, will discouragingly 
respond to the most skilful prepared invective. A 
preacher may expect his hearers to soberly think 
on, discuss, and even criticise his utterances. This 
altered mental status of audiences has considerably 
weakened the preacher’s influence, so that ministers 
of non-Catholic denominations have felt the mem- 
bers of their charge gradually pass from their grasp. 

One of the most salutary results of the greater 
enlightenment of the people has been the impetus 
given to inquiry into various matters, especially 
those of religion. 

The prejudice that once broadened the distance 
between those differing in religion is fast disappear- 
ing. Many make personal inquiry into the Catholic 
religion, of which they had previously but the 
slightest knowledge. Others ask explanations of 
those who know and practise it. Then they test it 
by the authority they have been taught to regard 
as a standard, the New Testament. Then begins 
the mental struggle. They find the literal meaning 
of Scriptural passages to apply to the dogmas of' 


292 GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 

Catholic faith. This was the faith professed by 
their great ancestors; the faith whose source they 
cannot reach till they arrive at the first century.- 
The investigation continues with increased interest. 
History is read with avidity, particularly that relat- 
ing to the birth of the non-Catholic denominations 
in the sixteenth century. Who inspired Luther or 
any other leader? What authority had he to forsake 
the Catholic Church, to apply other than the literal 
meaning to many passages of Scripture, contrary to 
the constant teaching of the Church up to his time? 
What thoughts arise in the mind on the eve of con- 
version, to the person anxious about the salvation 
of his soul ! The light of truth dispelling all doubt, 
heralds the grace of conversion, and his troubled 
mind finds at length its desired rest in the Catholic 
Church, the true fold of Christ. 

The many conversions to the Catholic faith, which 
have taken place in recent years, warrant the asser- 
tion that the tide of the return of the separated 
children of the Church has already set in. As this 
increasing influx proceeds from different countries, 
it cannot be characterized as merely local; it is 
general. That it is general is further confirmed 
from the fact that it includes members of all classes 
of society. Its most significant feature is the large 
number of ministers of various non-Catholic denom- 
inations who have entered the true fold. Scarcely 
a year of conversions passes without including its 
clerical contingent. 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


293 


Nowhere is the return of the ministerial element 
more remarkable than in England. There the flow 
has steadily continued since Newman and Manning 
found peace for their souls in the Catholic Church. 
Although the number of conversions in England 
greatly exceeds those of any other nation, yet, whilst 
exciting extensive interest in the lovers of Christian 
unity, they may naturally be expected, when the 
cause, with the peculiar circumstances of the people 
at the time of the separation of the English nation 
from the Catholic Church, is rightly considered. 
Every student of English history knows that the 
unlawful passion of King Henry VIII. for a 
woman was the cause of that separation. When 
the reigning Pope refused to sanction the king’s 
adulterous desire, the monarch refused to obey the 
law of the Church, and in retaliation for the refusal 
to acquiesce in his adulterous course, he severed not 
only his own connection with the Church, but also 
that of the nation under him. This may seem 
startling to the people of the nineteenth century, 
enjoying freedom of worshipping God according to 
their conscience; but it was, nevertheless, feasible 
under a sovereign of a tyrannical character like that 
of Henry VIII. The king’s will was law in 
matters of religion, as in those regarding the state. 
Of course the people protested and resisted the 
king’s innovation in the Catholic religion of the 
nation; but in vain. They were whipped into com- 
pliance with the king’s wishes, into acceptance of 


294 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


the new religion prescribed by royal authority. In 
such circumstances there could be no sincere pro- 
fession of belief in the Anglican religion, thus intro- 
duced. It is a religion forced upon the people by 
royal power and an act of Parliament. It would be 
futile to expect cohesion among its members from 
the coercive means by which it was inaugurated. 
Its sequel of dissension, strife, and separation into 
minor sects could hardly be unforeseen by even super- 
ficial observers. These results began to manifest 
themselves not long after its inception, notwith- 
standing stringent measures for conformity to the 
form of worship established by law. 

The process of disintegration in the Anglican 
Church has been so successful that near the end of 
the nineteenth century, the non-conformist element 
in the population of Great Britain rivals in extent 
that of the Anglican or National Church. If such 
be its failure when aided by the law of the land, 
fostered by the highest secular authority, what shall 
be its fate when the knell of its disestablishment 
shall sound, when all state-support shall be with- 
drawn from it? 

To the attainment of this object, measures of late 
have been tending. In the legislative body, the 
sentiment against favoring any Church as a national 
institution has been constantly increasing, so that its 
connection with the state may at any time be severed 
by the same authority by which its establishment 
was effected. The ministers of the Anglican Church 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


295 


must foresee this separation, and for some time 
they have evinced no slight concern in the gloomy 
prospect. The eyes of many have been opened to 
the inanity of the Anglican Church. They have in 
vain tried to satisfy the yearnings of the heart by 
introducing into it ceremonies like those practised in 
the Catholic Church, evincing thereby their leaning 
towards that Church. Those innovations the con- 
servative Anglicans resent. They have elicited pro- 
tests and bitter hostility all over the kingdom, but 
still they proceed in the work of transformation. 
On this account it is quite a common spectacle to see 
one portion of an Anglican congregation arrayed 
against the other. One supports the courageous 
pastor, who tries to infuse into them a purer religion 
by imitating to a great extent the Catholic form of 
worship, whilst the other opposes the innovator with 
all their might. 

Thus a condition of chronic dissension, strife and 
disorder prevails throughout the Anglican establish- 
ment. These, with other causes, have induced many 
to make a deeper study of the Christian religion, 
that they may satisfy the ever-recurring doubt as to 
the true faith. Unprejudiced inquiry invariably 
results to those anxious about their eternal salvation 
in pointing out the way to the Catholic fold. Many 
in following it have made sacrifices of a secular 
nature, yet demanding no little fortitude on the part 
of the convert. Many have had to experience cold- 
ness, if not worse, from social acquaintances with 


296 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


whom they had once been on terms of intimate 
friendship. Others had to renounce no inconsider- 
able possessions or claims to heritages, from obeying 
the voice of conscience in the return to the faith of 
their forefathers. These, however great in the esti- 
mation of world ings, are rightly considered insig- 
nificant by the spiritual man, who deems all earthly 
possessions as too trivial to be compared to the hap- 
piness of the Saints when they enter into the joys of 
their Lord. To participate in the glory of God 
requires the will to be ready to renounce all earthly 
wealth, honors, and power, when these would deprive 
the soul of happiness, and procure instead endless 
misery in its future state. Not only these must a 
man renounce, but all social ties, all bonds of kin- 
dred ; he must even go so far as to renounce his own 
life, according to the words of Christ, if he would 
secure himself a share in the Kingdom of Heaven. 
“ If any man come to Me and hate not his father 
and mother and wife and children and brethren and 
sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My 
disciple; and whosoever doth not carry his cross 
and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” ( Luke , 
ch. xiv, v. 26-27). If, therefore, a person loves 
anything most dearly and finds it a hindrance to his 
salvation, he must detach his heart from it and bear 
with Christian resignation the burdens thereby in- 
curred. If some in modern times have cheerfully 
suffered the deprivation of worldly goods, or worldly 
honors, for the sake of their souls, though showing 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


297 


their true wisdom and magnanimity, yet such action 
among Christians, especially in the early ages of 
Christianity, is not rare; for then, not only riches, 
honor, friendship, and power were abandoned, but 
life itself was joyfully surrendered in the greatest 
trial of faith, the tortures of the Christian martyr. 
When remembering this, no sacrifice which any 
member of the denominations dissentient from the 
Catholic Church may make can be too great. 

Whilst the return of her children from all the 
nations separated from her fold, is joyfully welcomed 
by the Church, she may be pardoned in intensifying 
her joy in receiving to her maternal embrace the de- 
scendants of her once beloved British flock. She 
knows that they were snatched from her by violence 
without the co-operation of their free-will, and 
hence her yearning for them since the days of sep- 
aration, which cannot be appeased till she sees their 
union with her happily consummated. Her hopes 
for the realization of this expected union have of 
late been considerably increased. The number of 
conversions in the past has been great, but in com- 
parison with the predicted return of multitudes at 
apparently no very distant time in the future, it will 
be found small in proportion. 

There is an almost general movement in the An- 
glican Church towards the unity of faith with the 
Church of all ages, that cannot be denied. The 
transforming phase in the inner life of the former 
cannot be mistaken in its indication of the end in 


298 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


view. The conservative portion may try, by various 
measures, to impede or thwart this movement ; but 
they cannot arrest its progress. It cannot be frus- 
trated either by the pen or the sword, for, happily, 
the latter no longer hangs over the head of its mem- 
bers for expressing opinions, or acting contrary to 
the practice of the established Church in former 
times. The noble workers in the great movement 
for religious unity will have the cheering sympathy 
of all true Christians, who regard with increasing 
interest its continued development, till it culminates 
in its accomplishment of final reunion. 

May the divine light guide those, and they are 
many, who are actively and zealously engaged in 
promoting the great work, that they may find in 
their earnest search the way to the true fold, the 
soul’s rest. 

To the continued flow of converts from the 
British Isles, must be added the increasing influx 
from other nations. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 
so long averse to reconciliation, have at length rec- 
ognized their discarded mother. Their return is 
slow, but sure ; for many members of these nations, 
once so hostile to the Catholic Church, have already 
embraced her faith. Like the grain of the Gospel 
parable, the seed of true faith has already been re- 
sown, and its extension proceeds gradually, and 
almost unobserved, till it permeates the whole mass 
of the nations. How can these nations view with 
pride the highest institutions of learning erected in 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 299 

their midst, and be forgetful of the Church under 
whose fostering care for the enlightenment of the 
people they were established. Ingratitude, with un- 
natural antipathy, cannot always sway the human 
heart. When passion has expended itself, calm 
reason will resume its reign in a well-ordinated 
mind. These nations will yet sing the praises of 
the mother, who so fondly cherished them as the 
youngest of her offspring, in the great European 
wing of the Christian family. 

In Germany the prospects of the Catholic Church 
are most encouraging. There, the birth-place of 
separation from her in the sixteenth century, she 
continually augments her fold. There, her children 
are rapidly regaining lost ground. Her gains must 
not be ascribed to the prol ideation alone of her 
German flock, who remained faithful to her in the 
great revolution, but also to the return of the lost 
sheep who languished in the arid pastures far off, 
which invited with the delusive hope of safety 
and unbounded liberty. They find the same joyful 
welcome awaiting them as extended to her other 
children. When the Scriptures were constituted 
the sole guide to salvation, subject, however, to the 
direction which private judgment chose to take, it 
must inevitably develop into a rational religion, and 
nothing more, as has actually happened. 

In Germany we behold the lamentable results of 
such a pernicious doctrine. Its ultimate issue must 
be irreligion. Think as you please, do as you please. 


300 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


The Church, rescuing the misguided in this danger- 
ous condition, has proved herself also the saviour 
of society; for where irreligion prevails, the bonds 
of society are menaced; the welfare of the nation, 
peace, and prosperity are endangered. Modern gov- 
ernments have perceived this, and have removed the 
restrictions under which she formerly labored. The 
tendency to unity of faith is not less apparent in 
Germany than elsewhere. Its necessity is felt by 
the enlightened of all denominations, who deserve 
commendation for their efforts to preserve the people 
from irreligion and infidelity. 

A safe criterion of the progress of the Church in 
Germany is the number of her adherents. It is 
little less than half the entire population, but with 
the maintenance of the ratio of increase, it should 
at no distant future considerably exceed the half. 
The union of the whole, or the great majority of 
the nation in the true faith, may therefore be reason- 
ably predicted. 

Where the Church battled long to plant her 
standard, glorious success has at length rewarded 
her efforts. In the regions of Asia, covered with 
dense populations, her zealous sons are incessant, 
spreading the light of faith. New countries are 
being rapidly added to the Kingdom of Christ on 
earth. Streams of neophytes from all these sunny 
lands incessantly flow to the Church of all nations, 
the true fold of Christ. But in these smiling 
countries with vast populations, whilst the harvest 


GUIDE TO TRUE RELIGION. 


301 


is ripe, the laborers are few. It should, therefore, 
be the object at heart of every true lover of Christ 
to give effect to his Divine Master’s exhortation: 
“ Pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send 
more laborers to reap the harvest.” 

In all quarters of the globe we behold the advance 
of the Catholic Church. In the nations once her’s, 
but for some time separated from her, we see the 
general tendency to re-enter her fold. In the nations 
far off, who for ages have lived in spiritual dark- 
ness, she finds a ready response to the light of faith. 
What joyful hope, then, should fill the heart of 
every follower of Christ for the union of all Chris- 
tians in one faith, as they acknowledge but one 
Lord and Master ! May this noblest of works be 
aided by each one, according to his ability, and thus 
may he co-operate with the prayer for unity among 
his followers, which our dear Lord uttered on the 
ever-memorable night before He offered Himself a 
sacrifice for our salvation : “And not for them only 
do I pray, but for them also who through their word 
shall believe in Me: That all may be one as Thou, 
Father in Me and I in Thee ; that they may also be 
one in CJs, etc.” (Jn. xvii, v. 22). 



























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